New Year begins with more than 60 Deaths in the Aegean Sea and in Ceuta/Spain
We are only a few days into the New Year and already at least 58 persons have died while attempting to cross the Aegean Sea.[1] Last year, more than one million arrivals in Europe by sea were counted. These travellers had no other opportunity to reach Europe than by crossing the Mediterranean Sea, and more than 3750 drowned on their perilous journeys.[2] On the 2nd of January 2016, we had to witness the first death in the Aegean Sea in 2016: a two-year old boy fell off a boat, that we had been in contact with during their crossing, when the boat hit the rocks off the Greek island of Agathonisi, according to media accounts.[3] This death reminds us of Aylan Kurdi and all the other children, who lost their lives in 2015, as well as those whose lives are still being risked every day. On Tuesday, the 5th of January the Alarm Phone had to witness again the loss of at least 34 lives, including many children off the Turkish coast. At least two boats had capsized on early Tuesday morning, because of extremely high waves. The Turkish Coastguard came too late to rescue all passengers.