Child dies as Turkey lets migrants flee to Europe
A CHILD has become the first reported death since Turkey opened its borders last week to let migrants reach Europe.
The unnamed boy drowned after a boat carrying migrants to the Greek island of Lesbos capsized yesterday.
After a rescue operation was launched the coastguard said they had rescued the migrants, which included two children who were taken to hospital – one of them unconscious.
But resuscitation efforts on the unconscious child, a boy aged six or seven, failed.
The tragedy happened after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country could no longer cope with the surge of refugees from war-torn Syria and he would no longer enforce a 2016 EU deal to prevent migrants entering Europe.
Overturned
Footage also emerged of a coastguard onboard a boat jabbing at migrants on another boat, which was also shot at. The Greek coastguard claimed 46 migrants on a dinghy heading to Lesbos, accompanied by a Turkish patrol vessel while in Turkish waters, overturned it deliberately once in Greek waters.
On Friday Turkish officials set the crisis in motion by announcing they would no longer try to stop irregular migrants from reaching Europe.
Yesterday President Erdogan told a meeting of his Justice and Development Party, in Ankara, that more than 100,000 migrants have entered the EU.
Meanwhile, Greek police have used tear gas to stop the thousands entering and asked EU border agency Frontex for urgent help.
Turkey already hosts some 3.7 million migrants from Syria alone, more than any other country in the world.
Ankara has repeatedly complained that the EU has failed to keep its promises under the 2016 EU-Turkey refugee deal to help stem the tide of migrants.
The recent refugee surge followed an attack by Syrian regime forces on Turkish troops in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
Frontex has moved on to a highalert footing, stationing troops along the 27-nation bloc’s land border with Turkey and in the Greek islands. Some migrants threw stones and metal bars when stopped, and Greek border guards fired tear gas.
EU Council president Charles Michel and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will today visit the border with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
Yesterday the Greek said: “Turkey, instead the traffickers’ channels government of curbing of migrants and refugees, a trafficker.”
Greece has blocked new asylum applications for a month, because of the “co-ordinated and massive nature” of migration from Turkey.
The statement added: “This relocation of people has nothing to do with international law regarding the right of asylum, which concerns only individual cases.” has itself turned into