AT least 18 people have drowned off the Turkish coast while trying to reach Greece yesterday, while FYROM authorities imposed further restrictions on refugees trying to cross the Greek border.
The dead include three children, according to reports.
The Turkish coast guard launched a search-and-rescue mission for other migrants believed to be missing from the accident. The coast guard rescued 15 other migrants off the Aegean Sea resort of Didim, it added.
Meanwhile, Greek police officials said Macedonian authorities are only allowing those from cities they consider to be at war to cross the Idomeni border crossing from Greece. That means people from cities such as Aleppo in Syria, for example, can enter, but those from the Syrian capital of Damascus or the Iraqi capital of Baghdad are being stopped.
The developments come a day ahead of a summit between the European Union and Turkey to discuss the crisis.
Nearly all refugees and other migrants who enter the EU have been doing so by taking small inflatable dinghies from the Turkish coast to the nearby Greek islands. With thousands of miles of coastline, Greece says it cannot stem the flow unless Turkey stops the boats from leaving its shores.
Athens has also criticised Europe for not sticking to agreements to take in refugees in a relocation scheme.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said yesterday: “While Idomeni is closed for refugees and the flows from the islands, from the Turkish shores to the islands, remain, it must be perfectly clear that the immediate start of a reliable process of relocation of refugees from our country to other countries of the European Union is a matter of complete urgency,”
While thousands arrive in Greece’s main port of Piraeus from the islands, about 13,000 to14,000 people remain stranded in Idomeni, with more arriving each day. The refugee camp has overflowed, with thousands pitching tents among the railway tracks and in adjacent fields.
The rate at which refugees are being allowed to cross had already been reduced to a trickle. Greek police said 240 people crossed between 6am on Saturday and the same time yesterday morning when dozens of local Greeks arrived in cars packed with clothes and food donations to distribute to the refugees. Many were mobbed as they arrived at the first tents, with men, women and children scrambling to receive whatever handouts they could.
The sheer numbers have overwhelmed the Greek authorities. Massive queues of hundreds of people form from early in the morning, with people waiting for hours for a lunchtime sandwich.
While Greek officials have tried to discourage more people from arriving, and no longer allow buses to drive to the Idomeni border, hundreds continue to arrive each day, walking more than 10 miles (15km) from a nearby petrol station where the United Nations refugee agency has set up large tents.
“We have been here five days, or six. Who remembers the days anymore,” said Narjes al Shalaby, 27, from Damascus in Syria, travelling with her mother and two daughters, five-year-old Maria and 10-year-old Bara’a.
“She’s grown up sooner that she should have,” she says of Maria, sleeping in the back of the family’s small tent. “She’s aged.”
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