TURKEY tr-national

Greek police find more immigrant bodies, toll rises to 18

THESSALONIKI – Agence France-Presse | 7/7/2010 12:00:00 AM |

Greek police found two more bodies in a river on the border with Turkey on Tuesday, raising the number of illegal migrants who drowned there last month to 18.

The two bodies found in the Evros River were Africans, a police official said.

Since June 25 the bodies of six men and five women have been retrieved on the Greek side of the river. Five more bodies were also found on the Turkish side of the river, according to Greek authorities.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, or UNHCR, said most of the dead were believed to be Somali nationals who had "a legitimate need to seek international protection in the European Union."

In a statement, the agency urged governments to assess applications for refugee status from people in central and southern Somalia in the "broadest possible way" considering the conflict and dire humanitarian situation in the war-torn country.

Police said the migrants were part of a group that tried to cross the Evros with the adults swimming and children in a small boat.

"The flow of irregular arrivals through the Evros River has seen a three-fold increase this year compared to the same period in 2009, while the arrivals through the Eastern Aegean islands have considerably decreased," the UNHCR said.

At least 287 people lost their lives trying to reach the EU in 2009, it said.

In 2009 about 48,000 were detained at land borders and 30,400 at coastal borders, accounting for 75 percent of all illegal migrants to the European Union, according to the Warsaw-based EU agency Frontex.

More than 500 people have drowned since 2007 trying to enter Greece, mostly from Turkey, according to the Migrants Forum of Greece.