A total of five individuals - two adults, two children, and baby - drowned in the Greek Islands last Sunday, the Greek coastguard reports. These said five people were migrants from Turkey and were trying to reach Greece. Another individual is still missing in another drowning incident.
Greek coastguard reports that it was on Sunday when a sail boat had been recovered containing the body of a baby. Three other corpses - two women and a boy - were also found while the coastguard was looking for the missing man.
In a separate incident, Yahoo News reports, that a boy, part of a group of about 110 people, 'drowned when he fell off a boat en route to the island of Farmakonisi. The rest of the people managed to get ashore'.
On October 15, Thursday, another five members of a Lebanese family were reported to have drowned while another were reported missing after their boat sank in the Mediterranean, relatives said on Thursday.
Relatives of the Lebanese family said 12 of their family members left Lebanon in search for a better like in the European Union. Unfortunately, they were not able to make it. They were originally from Bekaa Valley, which is close to the border with Syria.
This is one of the grave consequences brought about by the war happening in Syria, Afghanistan, and Turkey.
In an effort to flee from these war-torn places, thousands of refugees try to cross the Aegean Sea via Turkey using inflatable boats which are most often than not unreliable especially when it comes to rough seas.
Mohammed Safwan, whose parents were among the 12 who set off on Sunday from Lebanon, told Reuters that 'the family had decided to travel to Europe because they had heard the borders were open to refugees'. On the other hand, Albert Rizkallah, a cousin of the victims, told the news agency that the family members of those who have drowned are asking for help to get the bodies home. He said, 'The state did not help the Lebanese people when they were alive, it should at least have mercy on them when dead'.
UNHCR, a UN refugee agency, said that almost 400,000 people have arrived in Greece this year. This is way more than the nation's capacity.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
