70 more refugee children drown following Aylan's death

The devastating images of a drowned Syrian toddler washed ashore on the beach of Turkish resort town Bodrum showed how severe the Syrian refugee crisis has become, as a group of refugees drowned in the Aegean after two boats sank last September. The picture showed a Syrian toddler wearing a red T-shirt and shorts, washed up on a beach, lying face-down on the shore in Bodrum. Shortly after it was posted on Twitter, the picture went viral and became the top-trending picture with the hashtag of "KıyıyaVuranInsanlık," which means "humanity washed ashore". The Syrian boy has been identified as 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi, whose 5-year-old brother Galip and mother Rihan died on the same boat. The father, Abdullah, is said to have survived. As the picture of Aylan's little body on the shore circulated in the media and had been retweeted thousands of times in the first few hours shortly after the accident, some social media users have also shared images of Aylan and his brother Galip when they were living a peaceful life in Syria.

The picture has attracted attention to the growing refugee problem and the world leaders have made calls to find a solution. However, the tragedy has not ended. More than 70 child have died attempting the same crossing between Turkey and Greece. In a statement issued on Thursday night, Save the Children said the short Aegean Sea crossing was becoming more deadly as winter weather set in. According to Save the Children, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) says 69 children died trying to make the crossing from Turkey to Greece between September 2 and October 26. At least five more died in the last two days. Kate O'Sullivan, part of Save the Children's response team in Lesbos said that "What we need are safe and legal routes for refugees to come to Europe, to stop people who have already suffered so much losing their lives close to the end their journey. I have seen children sleeping in the mud under a flimsy bit of cardboard, and kids shivering with blue lips and hands. We expect the situation to get much worse as winter really bites.

EU countries have decided on the so-called quota system last month to relocate a small number of the refugees since many of those countries have stated that they did not want to receive refugees. Greece's prime minister said on Friday he was ashamed to be a member of a European Union he said was passing the buck over the migrant crisis and crying hypocritical tears for the children who have drowned trying to reach the bloc. In some of the hardest-hitting comments yet on a crisis resonating throughout Europe, Alexis Tsipras told parliament Greece didn't want a "single euro" for saving lives as thousands of refugees continued to arrive daily on its shores, and the EU remained at odds on how to deal with the influx. "I feel shamed as a member of this European leadership, both for the inability of Europe in dealing with this human drama, and for the level of debate at a senior level, where one is passing the buck to the other," Tsipras told parliament. "These are hypocritical, crocodile tears which are being shed for the dead children on the shores of the Aegean. Dead children always incite sorrow. But what about the children who are alive who come in thousands and are stacked on the streets? Nobody likes them."

More than 83,600 people have arrived in EU member Slovenia since mid-October after fellow bloc member Hungary shut its border with Croatia with a razor-wire fence, police said Tuesday. More than 700,000 people fleeing war and misery have reached Europe's Mediterranean shores so far this year, with the majority coming from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. From Greece, they begin a grueling trek through the western Balkans and central Europe in the hope of reaching the EU's economic powerhouse Germany, the preferred destination for many migrants.

The turmoil in the Middle East, Africa and the five-year war in Syria have led many people to flee the conflict in an attempt to seek security and shelter in a more prosperous and peaceful country, such as those in the EU. Roughly half of Syria's population has been displaced by violence, with over 4 million Syrians now seeking refuge in neighboring countries, especially Turkey, which has around 2 million refugees, as well as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. Compared to Syria's neighboring countries, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees encouraged EU countries to do more to share the burden of the international community in the refugee crisis.