LESBOS, Greece (AP) — The latest in the odyssey of hundreds of thousands of people trekking across Europe in search of a new life: All times local.
11:45 a.m.
A Swedish mayor says a standoff continues with 14 asylum-seekers who are refusing to move into fully equipped chalets in a remote and cold part of Sweden where they have been told to stay while their asylum applications are processed.
Kurt Podgorski says the chalets, made for winter sports tourists, in the middle of woods several kilometers (miles) from the nearest town, “maybe is in stark contrast with what they left.”
Podgorski said Thursday temperatures in Lima, a mountainous forest in northern Sweden close to Norway, currently are above freezing.
Some of the Syrian and Iraqi asylum-seekers have since Sunday occupied the bus that brought them there, saying Lima is not suitable for them because they have a pregnant woman and children.
Podgorski added police might intervene to help the bus company get its vehicle back.
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9:40 a.m.
Authorities on the Greek island of Lesbos say 38 people are believed still missing after a wooden boat carrying migrants sank. Three people are known to have died.
At first light Thursday, a helicopter from the European border protection agency Frontex joined the search by Greek coast guard vessels off the northern coast of the island, hours after the dramatic rescue of 242 people.
At least 11 people — mostly children — died in five separate incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea on Wednesday, as thousands of people continued to head to the Greek islands from Turkey in frail boats and stormy weather.
Lesbos has borne the brunt of the refugee crisis in Greece, with more than 300,000 reaching the island this year — and the number of daily arrivals recently peaking at 7,500.
In a dramatic scene late Wednesday, dozens of paramedics and volunteers helped in the effort to assist the survivors, wrapping them in foil blankets and prioritizing ambulance transport.
Eighteen children were hospitalized, three in serious condition, local authorities said.
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