Published : 24-10-2019
A Greek coast guard patrol boat collided with a dinghy carrying migrants to the island of Kos from Turkey on Wednesday, leaving a child dead and another person missing, authorities said.
Officials on Kos said that 31 people were rescued following the collision, in an effort assisted by private boats and the European Union border protection agency Frontex. The circumstances of the collision were not immediately clear.
The crash occurred before sunrise Wednesday in the heavily patrolled waters of the east Aegean Sea.
“The search effort is focused on locating a missing 26-year-old Syrian man,” coast guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said. “The collision happened in total darkness ... they are trying to make the crossing undetected and the dinghies are usually overloaded with people. It is sometimes very difficult to detect those boats even for vessels equipped with radar.”
According to AGPS data, Greek islands have seen a surge in recent months of refugees and migrants traveling in boats to the Greek islands to try and eventually reach EU countries.
Dozens of Palestine refugees who fled the relentless Syrian warfare to remote Greek islands have been crammed in refugee camps that have reportedly been running at three times their capacity. Overpopulated refugee camps cause a shortage of resources, not least healthcare.
Last month month, UNICEF warned that the number of unaccompanied migrant minors staying in overcrowded reception centers on the Greek islands exceeds 1,100, the highest level since the peak of the refugee crisis in early 2016, calling on European countries to do more to protect vulnerable children.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian and Syrian refugees have flooded across the Mediterranean and into Greece over the past few years, counting on being relocated elsewhere in Europe as part of an E.U. plan to redistribute the asylum seekers to lighten the burden on the countries at the front lines of Europe’s migrant crisis.
AGPS has kept record of the death of dozens of refugees onboard Greece-bound ships. Several others have been rounded up by Turkish coast guards.
Activists estimate that around 4,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria are taking cover in such Greek islands as Lesbos, Mytilene, Chios, Leros, and Kos, among other areas in Greece.
A Greek coast guard patrol boat collided with a dinghy carrying migrants to the island of Kos from Turkey on Wednesday, leaving a child dead and another person missing, authorities said.
Officials on Kos said that 31 people were rescued following the collision, in an effort assisted by private boats and the European Union border protection agency Frontex. The circumstances of the collision were not immediately clear.
The crash occurred before sunrise Wednesday in the heavily patrolled waters of the east Aegean Sea.
“The search effort is focused on locating a missing 26-year-old Syrian man,” coast guard spokesman Nikos Lagadianos said. “The collision happened in total darkness ... they are trying to make the crossing undetected and the dinghies are usually overloaded with people. It is sometimes very difficult to detect those boats even for vessels equipped with radar.”
According to AGPS data, Greek islands have seen a surge in recent months of refugees and migrants traveling in boats to the Greek islands to try and eventually reach EU countries.
Dozens of Palestine refugees who fled the relentless Syrian warfare to remote Greek islands have been crammed in refugee camps that have reportedly been running at three times their capacity. Overpopulated refugee camps cause a shortage of resources, not least healthcare.
Last month month, UNICEF warned that the number of unaccompanied migrant minors staying in overcrowded reception centers on the Greek islands exceeds 1,100, the highest level since the peak of the refugee crisis in early 2016, calling on European countries to do more to protect vulnerable children.
Tens of thousands of Palestinian and Syrian refugees have flooded across the Mediterranean and into Greece over the past few years, counting on being relocated elsewhere in Europe as part of an E.U. plan to redistribute the asylum seekers to lighten the burden on the countries at the front lines of Europe’s migrant crisis.
AGPS has kept record of the death of dozens of refugees onboard Greece-bound ships. Several others have been rounded up by Turkish coast guards.
Activists estimate that around 4,000 Palestinian refugees from Syria are taking cover in such Greek islands as Lesbos, Mytilene, Chios, Leros, and Kos, among other areas in Greece.
