Several People, Including Three Children And A Baby, Have Drowned Off Lesbos

Incidents on Thursday and Friday saw the number of refugees and migrants who have drowned crossing the Aegean sea rise steadily.

Seven people drowned off the coast of the Greek Island of Lesbos after a boat and a coast guard vessel crashed during a migrant rescue operation on Thursday.

Refugees including a man, two women, three children and a baby, were among those who died as they made the attempt to cross the Aegean sea from Turkey. 31 people were rescued after the wooden boat they were traveling on sank, Reuters said.

On Friday, a 65-year-old woman, thought to be from Iraq, who was traveling with her husband, son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren was also drowned off the coast of Lesbos, ITV News said. She died in front of her family when their dinghy capsized.

As images began to circulate of the young victims of Thursday's incident being pulled from the sea by Greek coast guard divers, many were reminded of the images of three year old Aylan Kurdi. The young Syrian boy was washed onto a beach in Turkey's resort town of Bodrum after drowning with his mother and brother while attempting the crossing to Greece in September.

The U.N. Refugee Agency said about 4.1 million people fleeing Syria had been registered as refugees, including almost 400,000 who have arrived in Greece.

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, 100 people have drowned making the crossing from Turkey to Greece this year, and 3,100 have perished across the Mediterranean.

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