At least 15 people, including a child, drowned when an inflatable boat carrying refugees and migrants sank off Greece's Lesbos island, officials said yesterday.
Eight bodies were recovered in Greek territory and another seven in Turkish waters, a Greek coastguard official said. The boat is believed to have set sail from Turkey late on Sunday.
Citing survivors, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said 25 people were on board. Two survivors, one of whom is pregnant, were from Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo, the agency said.
Though fewer than 10 nautical miles separate Lesbos from Turkish shores, hundreds of people have drowned trying to make the crossing since the refugee crisis began in 2015.
In that year, Lesbos was the main gateway into the European Union for nearly a million Syrians, Iraqis and Afghans.