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Dozens dead as two boats sink off Greece Dozens drown off Greek islands in deadliest January for refugees
(35 minutes later)
At least 41 people, including 17 children, have died after two boats sank overnight off Greece. Dozens survived the shipwrecks and a search-and-rescue operation was underway on Friday looking for more survivors. At least 40 people people, including 17 children, died after their boats sank near two Greek islands as deaths of migrants and refugees in the Mediterranean make this the deadliest January on record.
In the first incident, a wooden boat carrying 48 migrants and refugees sank off the small island of Farmakonissi in the eastern Aegean sea. Forty of the passengers managed to make it to shore, while authorities rescued one girl and recovered seven bodies from the sea – six children and one woman – the Greek coast guard said. The latest deaths occurred off two small islands in the eastern Aegean. The highest death toll came when a wooden sailboat sank off Kalolymnos. The coast guard recovered 34 bodies and rescued 26 people. The number of those missing is not known, although 70-100 people were thought to be on board.
A few hours later, a wooden sailboat carrying an undetermined number of people sank off Kalolimnos, to the south of Farmakonissi. Hours earlier, a wooden boat carrying more than 50 people sank after crashing into a rocky area off the Farmakonisi islands, to the north of Kalolymnos. Forty people scrambled to shore, one girl was rescued, but six children and one woman died.
The coast guard rescued 26 people from that sinking and recovered 34 bodies. Coast guard vessels, a helicopter and private boats were still searching for survivors. Authorities said the survivors’ estimates of how many people had been on board varied from about 40 to 70, so it was unclear how many people were missing. Despite winter weather, refugees - many from Syria - are still making the perilous journey from Turkey in flimsy boats every day. According to the International Organisation for Migration, deaths in the Mediterranean in the past 24 hours bring to at least 113 the total number of fatalities recorded, which is more than the past two Januaries combined, when 94 deaths were recorded – 12 in January 2014 and 82 last year.
Greece is the main entry point for hundreds of thousands of people seeking safety or a better life in Europe. More than 800,000 entered Greece last year, mostly using unseaworthy boats to reach Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast. Hundreds have died in the attempt. The IOM says the latest fatalities make this January the deadliest on record, with more than a week left in the first month of 2016. The numbers arriving in Italy and Greece by sea so far exceed those in the comparable period last year.
“With nearly 37,000 migrants and refugees now having arrived in Italy and Greece by sea in 2016, that figure is roughly 10 times 2015’s total on this date. For Greece and the western Balkans, the increase is well over 20 times 2015’s total on this date,” said IOM.
The 95 deaths recorded in the waters between Turkey and Greece bring to 900 the number of men, women and children who have died on the so-called eastern Mediterranean route since the beginning of 2015, according to IOM.
Greece is the main gateway for people fleeing war and poverty trying to reach the European Union. More than 800,000 entered Greece last year, mostly using rickety boats to reach Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast.
On the central route linking North Africa to Sicily, IOM reports that 18 men and women have been reported missing or drowned in 2016 - bringing the total since January 2015 to 2,910. While deaths in the waters between Turkey and Greece are almost a daily occurrence, there have been just two known shipwrecks between Libya and Italy so far this year.
The refugee crisis has left governments scrambling for solutions. John Kerry, the US secretary of state, said the US will seek a 30% increase in UN humanitarian funding this year at a UN summit to be hosted by Barack Obama, the US president.
The US state department said it would seek an increase in funding from $10bn in 2015 to $13bn this year at the summit to be held on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in September. In a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kerry said the summit would also seek to increase the number of regular humanitarian donor countries by 10 and to at least double the number of refugees who are resettled or allowed other safe and legal channels of admission.
With the EU struggling to cope with the refugee influx, the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, said in an interview that Europe cannot take in all the refugees fleeing wars in Iraq and Syria without putting the concept of Europe itself in grave danger.
Speaking to the BBC in Davos, Valls said Europe needed to take urgent action to control its external borders. “Otherwise,” he said, “our societies will be totally destabilised.”
Asked about border controls inside Europe, which many fear put the passport-free Schengen zone at risk, Valls said the concept of Europe was in jeopardy. “If Europe is not capable of protecting its own borders, it’s the very idea of Europe that will be questioned,” he said.