Child drowns after boat carrying 46 migrants capsizes off Greece

A child has drowned at sea after a dinghy boat capsized during a crossing in Greece, marking the first death since Turkey opened its border so migrants and refugees could leave for Europe.

It comes as Greek police fired tear gas at migrants trying to get through the land border.

The Greek coast guard claimed 46 migrants on a dinghy heading to the island of Lesbos, accompanied by a Turkish patrol vessel while in Turkish waters, overturned deliberately once in Greek waters.

In a separate incident, two Turkish security sources told Reuters that a Syrian migrant had died from injuries on Monday after Greek security forces intervened to prevent migrants crossing from Turkey into Greece. However, Athens said the claim was “fake news”.

More than 10,000 migrants, mainly from Syria, other Middle Eastern states and Afghanistan, have reached Turkey’s land borders with EU states Greece and Bulgaria since last Thursday.

On Monday, thousands of migrants continued to find a way across Turkey’s land border into Greece, which has made clear its borders will remain closed.

Greek and Turkish police fired tear gas into stone-throwing crowds caught between the fences in no man’s land.

Dozens managed to pass through border fences as others reached Greek islands from the Turkish coast by boat, while some others attempted swimming across the Evros river.

Greek police said that at least 1,000 migrants reached Greece’s eastern Aegean islands since Sunday morning.

Around 32 others were rescued in the seas off Farmakonissi, a small island close to Turkey, the coast guard said.

Turkey’s decision to ease border restrictions came amid a Russian-backed Syrian government offensive into Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

That offensive has killed dozens of Turkish troops and led to thousands of Syrian civilians fleeing towards the border with Turkey.

Fighting on the ground continued in Idlib on Monday, with heavy clashes between Syrian government forces and Turkish-backed fighters.

Mr Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Moscow on Thursday for talks on Idlib, according to the Kremlin.

Greek authorities said that, in the 24 hours from 6am local time on Sunday, there were 9,877 attempts to cross the northwestern land border either through the fence or across the Evros river.

Authorities arrested 68 people and charged them with illegal entry.

Greece has said it is faced with what has all the markings of an organised campaign by Ankara to push people through its border.

The Greek government has sent the army and police reinforcements to the land border with Turkey, claiming it was suspending all asylum applications for a month and would return those entering the country illegally without registering them.