Boat Sinks off Greece's Lesbos

At least 15 people, including a child, drowned when an inflatable boat carrying refugees and migrants sank off Greece's Lesbos island officials said on Monday.

News ID: 73599

Date: 24 April 2017 - 17:29

According to MANA, Ruters cited, eight bodies were recovered in Greek territory and seven in Turkish waters, a Greek coastguard official said. The boat is believed to have set sail from Turkey late on Sunday.

In that year, Lesbos was the main gateway into the European Union for nearly a million Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.

A deal in March 2016 between the EU and Ankara has all but closed the route down and just over 4,800 refugees and migrants have crossed to Greece from Turkey this year, according to UNHCR data. An average of 20 arrive on Greek islands each day.

At least 173,000 people, mostly Syrians, landed in Greece in 2016.