Bodies of two migrants wash up on Greek islands

ATHENS – Agence France-Presse

Refugees from Syria and Iraq disembark on the Greek island of Lesbos after arriving with approximately 120 people on a wooden boat from the Turkish coast, Monday, Oct. 26, 2015. AP Photo

The bodies of two migrants were found on the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios on Oct. 26 after accidents aboard two boats bound for Europe, according to Greek police.

A 21-year-old woman drowned after falling off a boat near the island of Chios, according to accounts from 35 survivors who were travelling in the same vessel.

Meanwhile, the body of a 20-year-old man was discovered on the nearby island of Lesbos, where thousands of migrants have landed in the last few weeks.

The young man was part of a group of 42 people, the rest of whom made it safely to Mytilene, the island’s capital.

The circumstances of the two deaths were not known, but the rickety boats laden with migrants had set out from the nearby shores of Turkey.

Despite worsening weather at the onset of winter that has made the already hazardous sea voyage from Turkey to Greece even more dangerous, a record 48,000 refugees and migrants arrived last week in Greece, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Oct. 23.

At least three migrants - two children and a woman - drowned on Oct. 25 when their boat sank off Lesbos, the coastguard said.

Over 330 people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East and Asia have died in the Aegean Sea so far this year, according to the IOM.