A child has died in the sea off Lesbos. The Greek coast guard reported that the boy was on a boat with about 47 other migrants attempting to reach the Greek island of Lesbos from Turkey. After the boat overturned, he was pulled from the water unconscious and has not recovered.
The Greek Coastguard reported the death of a child on Monday, March 3. The child, a male of unconfirmed nationality, had been traveling in a dinghy with 47 other migrants from Turkey in the early hours of Monday morning.
According
to the news agency AP, the coast guard said that the migrant dinghy
was "accompanied by a Turkish patrol vessel while in Turkish
waters." The coast guard said that as soon as the boat reached
Greek waters it "deliberately overturned...triggering a rescue
operation."
First reported fatality
It is
the first reported fatality since Turkey announced it would open its borders
last week.
The
migrants on board were rescued but two children were hospitalized
following the incident. One of the children, "a boy around six or
seven," was "unconscious" when he was pulled from the water and
according to the coast guard, "resuscitation efforts failed." The second child is now considered "out of danger."
'Go back, go back'
The Greek coast guard posted, in Greek, on its Twitter page on Monday about attempts to cross from Turkey to Lesbos.
The post included a
link to a YouTube video where someone can be heard shouting in
English with a Greek accent "go back go back" to an inflatable
dinghy full of migrants.
According to the English language Greek newspaper Ekathimerini, the footage is of the same boat.
The Greek Coast guard did confirm that in the space of 24 hours leading up to Monday morning, around 1,000 migrants had already reached the islands of Lesbos, Chios and Samos by boat. According to the news agency AFP, the Greek asylum service called these arrivals a "significant increase."
Local anger
Recently
Lesbos and other Greek islands have experienced loud demonstrations
of discontent by locals and migrants about the overcrowding in the
camps at Moria. On Monday, AP reported that "local anger at the
migration situation boiled over, with some residents preventing
people, including young children and babies, from disembarking from a
dinghy that reached a small harbor." AP also said that at other
points on the island locals "prevented buses from taking new
arrivals to Lesbos’ massively overcrowded migrant camp of Moria."
Some of
those who did make it to the island were reportedly forced to spend
the night on the beach. Others were bused by authorities to new
processing facilities at the island’s main port Mytilene where
makeshift facilities had been set up.
Further rescues
The Greek coast guard also reported rescuing a further 32 migrants in the seas
off the Greek island of Farmakonissi, not far from the Turkish coast.
A journalist with the news agency Reuters reported that about 30
Afghans had arrived on the island of Lesbos early Monday morning.
Greece's development Minister, Adonis Georgiadis reportedly told Skai TV the new developments were "an invasion," according to Reuters.