Four migrant children drowned off the Greek island of Lesbos and one woman drowned in a separate incident off the island of Samos on Monday, all while trying to cross the sea from nearby Turkey, the Greek government said.
The Greek coastguard rescued 23 people in Turkish waters in the early hours of Monday and four of them later died, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said. They were an 8-year-old boy and three girls aged 14, 8, and 11 months.
Video from Greece’s coastguard showed a rescue operation at sea near Lesbos and several body bags as well as rescued migrants being brought to shore in the Island’s capital Mytilene.
Separately, a woman and a child were found unconscious off the island of Samos overnight and the woman later died despite efforts to save her, Marinakis said.
More than 15,600 people have arrived in Greece this year, according to data from the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR, nearly 12,000 of them by sea.
