Migrant death toll mounts: At least 20 people drown as two boats capsize

At least 21 people have drowned after boats smuggling migrants capsized in two separate incidents. They died when their wooden boats sank off two Greek islands, coastguards said. The first, carrying 48 people, sank in the early hours of Friday off the island of Farmakonissi. Forty people made it to shore, one girl was rescued, and seven bodies were recovered from the sea. In a separate incident a boat carrying an unknown number of people sank off the island of Kalolimnos. Some 26 people were rescued and 14 bodies were recovered.

If Europe is not capable of protecting its own borders, it’s the very idea of Europe that will be questioned.

French prime minister Manuel Valls

The latest drowning tragedies come as Europe continues to wrestle over how to deal with the million-plus refugees who have fled conflicts in Syria and elsewhere. On Friday, French prime minister Manuel Valls warned that Europe’s migration crisis was putting the European Union at grave risk. He said Europe could not take all the refugees fleeing what he called terrible wars in Iraq or Syria. "Otherwise,“ he said, "our societies will be totally destabilised.”

We cannot cope with these numbers any longer we have to get a grip of this

Mark Rutte, Dutch prime minister