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.
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1:45 p.m.
A top U.N. health official says refugees sleeping outdoors or in cold shelters “are more prone to suffer from hypothermia, frostbite” and other health problems.
Zsuzsanna Jakab, head of European branch of the World Health Organization, said refugees should be given heated shelters, warm meals and proper clothing but also influenza vaccines. In a statement Thursday she urged health authorities in Europe to make sure to detect and treat the migrants’ cold-related diseases as winter approaches.
WHO’s European Region, based in Copenhagen, encompasses 53 countries, including former Soviet republics.
1:25 p.m.
Berlin police say they have arrested a suspect in the disappearance earlier this month of a 4-year-old Bosnian migrant boy, and have found the body of a child in the suspect’s car.
Police said the 32-year-old man, who wasn’t identified, was arrested Thursday morning. Police said they are still trying to confirm the identity of the dead child and an autopsy will be conducted later in the day.
The suspect was being questioned.
Authorities had released a video showing 4-year-old Mohamed Januzi leaving the central registration center for migrants in Berlin with an unidentified man on Oct. 1.
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1:20 p.m.
Hungary’s foreign minister says the international community must significantly ramp up its fight against the Islamic State group in order to stem the flow of people fleeing conflict in the Middle East and heading to Europe.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says “the less successful we are in combatting terrorism, the more migrants will come to Europe and the bigger challenge we will face.”
Szijjarto said Thursday the 28-nation European Union must put together a “European force” to help Greece protect its vast sea borders with Turkey, from which thousands of people cross daily into Europe.
He said the EU must also give more financial help to Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey so they can better take care of the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees they are hosting.
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1:05 p.m.
Swedish police say firefighters have extinguished another small fire in a house for unaccompanied refugee children.
Police say an “inflammable liquid was poured in through a window” of the house early Thursday and are calling the blaze arson. No one was injured.
In recent weeks, Sweden has seen a spate of arson attacks on asylum centers or buildings as an influx of refugees has surged. Swedish immigration officials estimate up to 190,000 asylum-seekers will arrive this year.
Sweden’s national police said they are coordinating the arson investigations and will use helicopters with infrared cameras in an attempt to find suspects.
In neighboring Norway, immigration authorities were considering whether to follow Sweden’s decision and longer publicize the location of refugee facilities.
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12:45 p.m.
Greek authorities have raised to seven the number of dead from a boat that capsized off the eastern island of Lesbos and are still looking for more than 30 others.
The coast guard said the bodies of two children, a man and a woman were recovered from the sea Thursday. The accident occurred in stormy weather Wednesday. Coast guards and local fishermen managed to rescue 242 people.
Nearly 1,000 people were rescued in 20 separate incidents off the eastern Aegean over the past two days, the Greek coast guard said.
But at least 11 — mostly children — drown in separate incidents Wednesday, as thousands of refugees keep heading to the Greek islands from Turkey.
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12:30 p.m.
Slovenian police say more than 100,000 refugees have entered the country in less than two weeks.
Police say more than 5,000 came in Thursday morning, bringing the total number since Oct. 16 to 102,757.
Asylum-seekers hoping to reach Western Europe turned to crossing Slovenia after Hungary closed its border with Croatia with a barbed-wire fence.
Slovenia has warned it could also put up a fence along its border with Croatia. The small nation of 2 million has repeatedly said it cannot not cope with the mass influx.
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12:20 p.m.
Greece’s Merchant Marine Ministry says the bodies of four more refugees trying to reach Europe have been found off the Greek island of Lesbos.
Authorities on Lesbos say the death toll has now risen to seven after a wooden boat carrying migrants sank en route from Turkey to Greece.
At least 30 others are still believed to be missing in the capsizing. Another 242 people were saved in a dramatic rescue Thursday night.
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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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