Greek Migrant Crisis

Four bodies were recovered and 340 people rescued Friday from a sinking migrant boat carrying a "significant number" of people in the Mediterranean Sea south of the Greek island of Crete, authorities said.

They left war-ravaged Syria, family and friends behind them. France was where they were aiming for. A Greek island was where they ended up.

Pope Francis arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday, turning the world's attention to the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past year.

Pope Francis and the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians will set aside centuries of dispute on Saturday when they visit a Greek island on the front line of Europe's migrant crisis to highlight the plight of refugees.

Pope Francis returns to the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis on Saturday when he visits Lesbos, the Greek island struggling to cope with the mass influx of asylum seekers arriving by boat from Turkey.

Pope Francis will visit Greece on April 14-15, a Greek government official said on Tuesday, getting a first-hand look at the front line of Europe's migrant crisis and thousands of refugees fleeing conflict.

Three migrants were hospitalised today after a brawl in a camp on the Greek island of Chios, aid groups and media said, as the country prepared to begin returning migrants to Turkey under an EU deal.

Portugal's divided parliament may refuse to approve Lisbon's contribution to new bailout loans for Greece and a European Union aid package to help Turkey deal with the migrant crisis, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Saturday.

Refugees and migrants stranded at Greece's border with Macedonia vowed to stay put on Tuesday, hours after the European Union and Turkey hailed a tentative accord to stop a scramble by hundreds of thousands of people to reach Europe from war zones.

European Union President Donald Tusk on Thursday warned economic migrants not to come to Europe, after holding talks on the refugee crisis with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Thousands of refugees are stuck on Greece's border with Macedonia, overflowing from a packed camp into the surrounding fields, as they wait for Macedonian authorities to let them continue their trek through the Balkans.

Greek Captain Argyris Frangoulis lifts his binoculars and with eyes fixed on the Aegean Sea horizon, steers his patrol boat out near the Turkish border to a dinghy full of stranded refugees.

He looks peacefully asleep. But the boy, lying on his back on a rocky Turkish beach, is dead - and a soul-searing reminder that Europe's migrant crisis keeps destroying lives and families by the day.

The bodies of at least eight migrants, most of them children, washed up on Turkey's Aegean coast today after their boat apparently capsized as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos, Turkey's Dogan news agency reported.

Turkish coastguards rescued 57 migrants seeking to reach EU member Greece by sea after they were stranded on a rocky islet in the Aegean Sea, official media said today.

Four bodies were recovered and 340 people rescued Friday from a sinking migrant boat carrying a "significant number" of people in the Mediterranean Sea south of the Greek island of Crete, authorities said.

They left war-ravaged Syria, family and friends behind them. France was where they were aiming for. A Greek island was where they ended up.

Pope Francis arrived on the Greek island of Lesbos on Saturday, turning the world's attention to the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis which has claimed hundreds of lives in the past year.

Pope Francis and the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians will set aside centuries of dispute on Saturday when they visit a Greek island on the front line of Europe's migrant crisis to highlight the plight of refugees.

Pope Francis returns to the frontline of Europe's migrant crisis on Saturday when he visits Lesbos, the Greek island struggling to cope with the mass influx of asylum seekers arriving by boat from Turkey.

Pope Francis will visit Greece on April 14-15, a Greek government official said on Tuesday, getting a first-hand look at the front line of Europe's migrant crisis and thousands of refugees fleeing conflict.

Three migrants were hospitalised today after a brawl in a camp on the Greek island of Chios, aid groups and media said, as the country prepared to begin returning migrants to Turkey under an EU deal.

Portugal's divided parliament may refuse to approve Lisbon's contribution to new bailout loans for Greece and a European Union aid package to help Turkey deal with the migrant crisis, Prime Minister Antonio Costa said on Saturday.

Refugees and migrants stranded at Greece's border with Macedonia vowed to stay put on Tuesday, hours after the European Union and Turkey hailed a tentative accord to stop a scramble by hundreds of thousands of people to reach Europe from war zones.

European Union President Donald Tusk on Thursday warned economic migrants not to come to Europe, after holding talks on the refugee crisis with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

Thousands of refugees are stuck on Greece's border with Macedonia, overflowing from a packed camp into the surrounding fields, as they wait for Macedonian authorities to let them continue their trek through the Balkans.

Greek Captain Argyris Frangoulis lifts his binoculars and with eyes fixed on the Aegean Sea horizon, steers his patrol boat out near the Turkish border to a dinghy full of stranded refugees.

He looks peacefully asleep. But the boy, lying on his back on a rocky Turkish beach, is dead - and a soul-searing reminder that Europe's migrant crisis keeps destroying lives and families by the day.

The bodies of at least eight migrants, most of them children, washed up on Turkey's Aegean coast today after their boat apparently capsized as they tried to reach the Greek island of Lesbos, Turkey's Dogan news agency reported.

Turkish coastguards rescued 57 migrants seeking to reach EU member Greece by sea after they were stranded on a rocky islet in the Aegean Sea, official media said today.