13 children among at least 22 migrants drowned off Greece

At least 22 migrants, including 13 children, drowned overnight Thursday to Friday off the Greek islands of Kalymnos and Rhodes as they made a desperate bid to reach Europe, while another 144 people were rescued, Greek port authorities said.

Off Kalymnos, authorities recovered the bodies of 19 migrants on Friday morning, including those of six women and 10 children. Witnesses cited by Greek officials said some 150 people had been trying to reach Kalymnos’s shores from Turkey on that boat.

Another boat sank overnight off Rhodes further south, where at least one woman, a child and baby drowned. Three people who had been travelling with them on the boat were still missing early Friday, while another six were rescued.

The latest tragedies came after a string of migrant deaths off the tourist islands of Lesbos and Samos, where at least 17 people including 11 children drowned according to Thursday’s figures.

In October alone, 68 people drowned trying to reach Greece from Turkey, according to an AFP count based on statistics released by Greek port authorities.