The bodies of the six refugees will be washed and shrouded according to Isalmic law at 8:30 A.M. at the makeshift mosque Al-Salam in Athens and then will be buried in the Muslim cemetery of Komotini, according to a statement by the Syrian Revolution Coordination Committee in Greece.

“The bodies of the six Syrians that drowned on the island of Lesvos will reach 8.30 A.M. to the Salam Mosque in Athens where they will be washed and shrouded and then buried in Komotini according to Islamic law. They will be accompanied by a delegation of the Association of the Free Syrian expatriates.”

As regards the burial of Muslims in Greece, there are only two choices: either to 
ship the body to their homeland for burial or to Thrace in northern Greece, home to the Muslim minority of the country.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week expressed deep sorrow over the recent shipwreck off the coast of Lesvos in which six persons have lost their lives: one mother with two very young children, one 17-year-old pregnant girl, one minor boy and one man.

Search and Rescue operations for the location of 3 more missing persons continue.

According to statements made by relatives of the victims to the police authorities of the island, the Syrians had left the Turkish coasts on 6th March heading towards Lesvos.

There is information that among the victims there is a five-member family and a 14-year-old boy who used to live in Greece but were obliged to return to Syria due to the Greek economic situation and subsequently forced to flee again because of the conflict.

The development comes only three months after 21 Afghan refugees lost their lives in the Aegean Sea. Since August 2012, when the crossing of the Evros has been made more difficult, refugees and migrants are increasingly turning to the Aegean and taking greater risks in the attempt to reach Europe.

Among the persons attempting the crossing there are an increasing number of Syrian refugees fleeing from the conflict. UNHCR highlights once again that border control measures should be combined with safeguards for the protection of persons fleeing from war and persecutions in line with State’s international obligations.

The UNHCR office in Greece furthermore has stressed that Syrian refugees should not be detained on the grounds of lack of legal documents or be served with deportation or return orders. On the contrary the Greek State should take all necessary measures for their protection, including processing of their asylum claims through fair and efficient procedures.

The migratory flow in Greece is changing. Joint Operation (JO) Poseidon Sea seems to offer the first results in limiting the crossing into Greece of illegal migrants, states Frontex Situational update.

The numbers of migrants crossing the Greek-Turkish land border dropped from over 2000 a week in the first week of August to little over 200 by the end of the month. This is the direct effect of increased surveillance and patrolling activities by the Greek authorities, which included the deployment of 1800 officers along the Evros river at the beginning of August.

In September, detections dropped even further from around 70 a week at the beginning of the month to below 30 in the second half. As crossing the border in the Evros region has become more difficult, the number of nationalities attempting to cross has also dropped; from over 60 to fewer than ten, with the majority of migrants now coming from Iraq, Syria and Eritrea.

As a reaction, some displacement effect has already taken place along the South Eastern border, with increasing numbers of migrants arriving mainly in the Greek Aegean Islands of Samos, Symi, Lesvos and Farmaconisi. At the sea border with Turkey, weekly detection rates grew from around six in July to approximately 180 in August and September.

In October, as response to the growing migratory pressure in the Eastern Aegean, Frontex has strengthen Joint Operation (JO) Poseidon Sea with additional air and maritime surveillance assets.

At the land border between Turkey and Bulgaria the numbers of illegal border crossing have also risen since August and vary between 40 and 70 a week. Frontex JO Poseidon Land at this border is an ongoing operation and supports the Bulgarian authorities with the screening and debriefing of irregular migrants.

The number of Syrians arriving in an irregular way in Europe via Turkey has also been growing steadily since the beginning of the year. The increase has been dramatic in July when up to 800 Syrians were crossing the Greek-Turkish land border every week. Currently Syrians still constitute a significant percentage of all migrants arriving in Greece. For example since 1 August out of over 1300 migrants who arrived in the Aegean islands nearly 30% were Syrian nationals.

Although increasing numbers of illegal border crossing are detected at the sea border and in Bulgaria, the total number of migrants is still quite low in comparison with numbers detected in the Evros region before additional resources were deployed there. Since the beginning of the year, over 30 000 migrants have been detected in the Evros region alone.

It is believed that a significant number of persons are still awaiting passage in Turkey.