Migrant crisis: At least 42 dead after two shipwrecks off Greek coast

Survivors try to warm up at Kalymnos island after a rescue operation by the coast guard -AP
AP
Michael Clarke22 January 2016

At least 42 migrants are reported to have drowned in two separate shipwrecks off the coast of Greece.

Up to 100 people were thought to have been on one of the boats, which sunk overnight near to the Greek islet of Kalolimnos, prompting fears the death toll will rise.

Eleven children were among the 34 people drowned.

Forty migrants made it to shore and one girl was rescued from the second shipwreck off Farmakonisi but a further eight died when the boat went down close to the Greek island.

More than 700 people have died making the Aegean crossing from Turkey to Greece in the last 12 months. More than one million migrants arrived illegally in Europe last year.

Today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is meeting Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in Berlin to discuss the crisis.

Cabinet ministers from both countries will be in attendance.

Germany is already rethinking its open-door policy, partly because of outrage over assaults on women in Cologne at New Year.

Thousands of migrants - many of them Syrian war refugees - still arrive daily from Turkey.

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