Sputnik — A baby boy has become this year’s first casualty of the Mediterranean refugee crisis after a boat with Europe-bound refugees sank Saturday off a Greek island, the Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) said.
The boy, reported to be two, drowned and another three-month old infant was severely hypothermic, the migration charity said. A total of eleven people were injured as a result of a violent impact as their boat hit the rocks.
“Today we came face to face with one of the youngest victims of this ongoing refugee crisis,” MOAS founder Christopher Catrambone said. “It is a tragic reminder of the thousands of people who have died trying to reach safety in miserable conditions.”
Europe is currently struggling to cope with a massive refugee influx, with hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa. According to the UN refugee agency, the Mediterranean Sea claimed over 3,600 lives last year.
