Boy, 2, is first migrant casualty of the year, with 10 others injured

A 2-year-old Syrian boy became the first sea migrant casualty of 2016, while 10 other asylum seekers were injured during their sea crossing, the NGO Migrant Offshore Aid Station said, according to dpa.

Khalid, a Syrian boy who was travelling to Greece with his mother, died when the rubber raft he was on was slammed against the rocks on the Aegean island of Nera.

The boy's body was pulled out of the water by fishermen, while the remaining 35 people on board the dinghy made it out alive, some just barely.

MOAS, a Malta-based migrant rescue NGO, which has recently started operating off Greece, said the migrants endured five hours in heavy seas only to end up shipwrecked upon jagged rocks.

Some 3,770 migrants died in 2015, making it the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees crossing the Mediterranean.

Source: SPA