Four dead, at least 39 rescued after migrant boat sinks off Greece

Shafaq News/ Four migrants, including three children, died after their boat sank off the island of Leros in the southeastern Aegean Sea on Sunday, the Greek coast guard said.

The coast guard recovered the body of a woman and rescued at least 39 migrants who, according to their accounts, had sailed from Turkey, a coast guard official said.

The three children died after being hospitalised, the coast guard said. The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately known.

Along with Spain and Italy, Greece is one of the key entry points into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

Most asylum-seekers cross to Greece from neighbouring Turkey.

The number of migrants being rescued has risen as more attempt to reach Greece from Turkish shores on shoddy and overcrowded boats despite rough winter seas.

A two-month-old baby died after a shipwreck off the Greek island of Lesbos in December.

Leros lies close to the Turkish coast. Boats loaded with migrants — many inflatables but also yachts and speedboats — regularly leave Turkey bound for Greece, with some even attempting to reach Italy, irrespective of the weather.

To date, 2,246 people fleeing war and poverty are known to have lost their lives in the eastern Mediterranean since 2014, statistics from the International Organisation for Migration shows.