Greek officials’ despair after 15 children drown at sea

In all, 34 people died and nearly 100 rescued after boat capsizes less than 10km from coast

Mortuary attendants transfer the body of one of the children who drowned off the coast of Greece to a morgue at a hospital in Rhodes after the bodies were transferred from the tiny island of Farmakonissi. Photograph: Argyris Mantikas/AFP/Getty Images
Mortuary attendants transfer the body of one of the children who drowned off the coast of Greece to a morgue at a hospital in Rhodes after the bodies were transferred from the tiny island of Farmakonissi. Photograph: Argyris Mantikas/AFP/Getty Images

Greek divers trawled the Aegean Sea yesterday for survivors of the country’s worst maritime accident involving refugees, as officials reacted with despair at the scene of the tragedy in which 15 babies and children drowned.

In all, 34 people died and nearly 100 were rescued after their small wooden boat capsized early on Sunday off the tiny island of Farmakonisi, less than 10km from the Turkish coast.

“I’m devastated. There was a lady there who wanted information and told me her three children and husband were missing. She was holding a three-month old infant in her arms,” one Greek official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“What was I supposed to tell her? That we found them? Her three children and husband are dead.”

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Christos Zois, shipping minister in Greece’s caretaker government, told Athens-Macedonia News Agency he felt as if he had been “kicked in the stomach” after visiting the area.

Main gateway

Greece

has become the main gateway for refugees flowing into Europe. Thousands are making the short but perilous journey from the Turkish coast to a chain of Greek islands just across the border in flimsy inflatable dinghies that are often overcrowded or burst along the way.

The Greek coastguard said it had rescued 1,429 migrants over the past three days. – (Reuters)