Small victims for big politics

The body of a migrant child lays on a beach near the Aegean resort of Ayvacik in Turkey. The refugees were trying to reach the Greek island of Lesbos.
Toddlers and young children are among at least 39 refugees who drowned in the Aegean Sea while trying to cross from Turkey to Greece overnight.
They were on an overcrowded smuggler boat that sank just metres off the shore of Ayvacik after hitting rocks.
Photos showed bodies lining beaches and coves, including children who appeared as young as two wearing life jackets and warm winter coats in preparation for the journey their families hoped to make to safety in Europe.
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Clashing with Migrants

Macedonian police have clashed with refugees bogged down in rain and cold on the border with Greece.
Clashes erupted when a group of refugees attempted to make their way across the border. Police used tear gas and fired warning shots to push the asylum seekers back, the DPA reported.
The refugees had been stranded outdoors for days on the Greek-Macedonian border between Idomeni on the Greek side and Gevgelija in Macedonia. They tried to pass through a border fence that has been erected against the influx of refugees.
Before Macedonia, several Balkan countries, including Serbia, Croatia and Slovenia, located on the route refugees take to western and northern Europe had adopted the same selective approach toward refugees from some countries.
Only the refugees from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan were permitted to pass in, and the rest were kept out in the wet cold.
The harsh decision left all other refugees, hailing from various African and Asian countries, including a multitude of children, stranded at the spot.
According to the UN, close to 900,000 refugees have landed in Europe via the Mediterranean from Africa and Asia so far this year. Hundreds of the refugees, mainly from the Middle East, have so far died in their perilous journey to the West.
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