RTE News :
At least 22 migrants trying to reach Greece by boat, including 11 women and four children, drowned today when their vessel sank off Turkey’s southwest coast, local media reported.
Turkish coastguards recovered nine more bodies, bringing the toll to 22, and rescued 211 migrants from the wooden boat.
The boat had set off from the southwestern resort town of Datca for the nearby Greek island of Kos, Dogan news agency reported.
The nationalities of the migrants are not yet known. Rescue efforts were still continuing, according to the news agency.
There has been a dramatic spike in the numbers of migrants and refugees setting out from Turkey in rickety boats for the European Union.
Most are fleeing conflicts and misery in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Africa.
Elsewhere, the United Nations has said it is “deeply disappointed” at the failure of European Union ministers to reach a final consensus on a plan to share the relocation of 120,000 refugees.
“Decisive agreement is needed without further delay to address the needs, as is bold action based on solidarity from all member states,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) said in a statement.
A majority of EU interior ministers, meeting in Brussels yesterday, agreed in principle to share out 120,000 asylum seekers on top of some 40,000 distributed on a voluntary basis so far.
But details of the deal, to be formalised on 8 October, were vague with several ex-Communist central European states still rejecting mandatory quotas.
An estimated 464,876 migrants have now crossed the Mediterranean so far this year, up from 432,000 as of Friday, which already doubled the total for all of 2014, the International Organization for Migration said.
Meanwhile, tough new laws have come into effect in Hungary allowing police to arrest and charge migrants entering the country illegally.
Yesterday, a razor-wire fence was completed to try to stop thousands of migrants who have been crossing the border from Serbia.
The new laws also allow the police to arrest anyone who tries to breach the new fence.
Police officers directed disappointed refugees towards a nearby official crossing point where they then got on buses that took them to registration centres.
As of last night, about 500 refugees lined up at the crossing point, waiting for their turn, with the end of the line backing into Serbia.
With this latest barrier, the refugees are expected to only be able to enter Hungary at one of several official checkpoints.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, speaking on television channel TV2, refused to consider the idea of establishing a longer-term refugee camp and participating in the relocation of refugees.
Instead, he called on all border control forces to reduce the number of refugees altogether, and especially those in Hungary.
Crossing anywhere other than officially crossing points has never been permitted. Signs will be attached to the fence, he said, pointing to the nearest crossing where asylum-seekers can apply.
However, he warned that refugees who fail to submit applications in Serbia would be rejected since Serbia was secure and the laws require submission in the first secure country.
Hungarian police rounded up 9,380 migrants who were crossing into the country from Serbia yesterday, the highest daily figure this year, the police have said.
Meanwhile, pressure for Europe to get to grips with the refugee crisis has come from many quarters.
Germany has been leading the clamour for member states to share the burden in taking in refugees who have been arriving in their hundreds of thousands from the Middle East and Africa this year alone.
Last week the European Commission proposed the relocation of 120,000 refugees whose presence in Italy and Greece has been straining resources to breaking point.
The relocation was to be mandatory, with further binding quotas being agreed as part of a permanent mechanism
However, the determined objections of countries like Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic meant that, despite hours of talks yesterday, unanimous agreement was not possible.
The Luxembourg presidency reported that there was a large majority in favour – and indeed under Lisbon Treaty rules a qualified majority vote could have been triggered.
Due to the sensitivity of the issue, however, justice ministers decided to postpone the matter until a meeting in October in the hope that those countries who object can eventually be won over.
