At least ten migrants drown off Turkey, several missing

A migration monitoring agency says deaths of
refugees and migrants crossing the Aegean Sea
between Turkey and Greece are "increasing at an
alarming rate" as 218 people have died in January on
that eastern Mediterranean route.— AP
AYVACIK: At least ten migrants, including five
children, drowned on Saturday when their boat sank
in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey
to Greece, the Turkish coastguard said.
An unknown number of people were still missing
after the latest in a long list of migrant boat sinkings
in the Mediterranean.
So far, 43 passengers had been rescued, the private
Dogan news agency reported.
"We are sad. At least 20 friends are still missing," one
weeping survivor told an AFP photographer at the
scene.
The migrants, who included Syrian and Afghan
refugees, had set off from the district of Ayvacik in
Canakkale province in an apparent bid to reach the
Greek island of Lesbos.
Turkey, which is hosting at least 2.5 million refugees
from Syria's civil war, has become the main
launchpad for migrants fleeing war, persecution and
poverty to Europe.
The Turkish government struck a deal with the EU in
November to halt the outflow of refugees, in return
for 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in financial
assistance.
Neither the deal nor the winter conditions appear to
have deterred the migrants, who continue to pay
people smugglers thousands of dollars for the risky
crossing in overloaded boats.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
said this week 45,361 migrants had arrived in Greece
by sea so far this year, 31 times more than for all of
January 2015.
Some 90 per cent of the new arrivals were from
Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, it added.