At least 17 children among 26 migrants dead on Aegean

At least 26 migrants, including 17 children, have died while dozens remain missing after boats carrying migrants from Turkey to Greece sank in three deadly incidents in the Aegean Sea. 

The Greek Merchant Marine Ministry said 19 people were killed and 138 people were rescued near the Greek island of Kalymnos, AP reported. 

Separately, three migrants died and six were rescued in an incident off the island of Rhodes on Oct. 30. 
Among the 22 migrants were 13 children, who drowned overnight when two boats sank off the islands of Kalymnos and Rhodes, the Greek port officials said on Oct. 30.

In a third incident, a fiber boat carrying a group of migrants from the western Turkish province of Bal?kesir to the Greek island of Lesbos capsized off the coast of Çanakkale's Küçükkuyu district, state-run Anadolu Agency reported. 

Coast guard teams initiated rescue efforts with three boats and a search and rescue helicopter. Some 19 migrants were rescued while the bodies of four children, between one year and four years old, were retrieved from the sea. 

Nearly 600 people were rescued by the coast guard in the past 24 hours, while thousands more made it safely to the islands on Oct. 30.

The death toll in the Aegean over the past three days has now reached nearly 50 - mostly children - while in Spain rescuers found the bodies of four migrants and were searching for 35 missing from a boat that ran into trouble trying to reach Spain from Morocco as of Oct. 30.

The deaths occurred amid a surge of crossings to Greek islands involving migrants and refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and other countries ahead of winter and as European governments weigh taking tougher measures to try and limit the number of arrivals in Europe...