Drowned toddler becomes first 2016 migrant casualty

Athens, January 3

A drowned two-year-old boy has become the first known migrant casualty of the year after the crowded dinghy he was travelling in slammed into rocks off Greece’s Agathonisi island, the coastguard said.

The other 39 passengers, including a woman who had fallen overboard, were rescued after local fishermen raised the alarm. Ten of the survivors were taken to hospital to be treated for hypothermia yesterday.

The rubber vessel had set off from Turkey in the early morning in windy weather.

The charity Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS), which helps save migrants and refugees at sea, deployed its fast-rescue Responder boat to help bring the stranded passengers to safety in a joint operation with the Hellenic coastguard. The toddler’s body was pulled out of the water by fishermen, according to the coastguard.

The migrants, including the child’s mother, were taken to the port of Pythagorio on Samos, the nearest island, which is 50 kilometres away.

There was no immediate information about their nationalities. — AFP