The Latest: 34 migrants drown in shipwreck off Greek island
By Associated Press
Jan 22, 2016 5:57 AM CST
In this photo taken on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016, An Afghan mother holds her baby as she sits on a bench after their arrival , from Turkey to the shores of the Greek island of Chios, on an dinghy crammed with refugees and migrants on Friday, Jan. 15, 2016. Even during the winter, overloaded dinghies have...   (Associated Press)

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The latest developments in Europe's immigration crisis (all times local):

1:50 p.m.

Greece's coast guard says 34 people have drowned when a wooden sailing boat carrying migrants sank off the coast of the small islet of Kalolimnos.

The coast guard said Friday it had recovered the bodies of 16 women, 11 children and seven men, while at least 26 people had been rescued. It was unclear how many people had originally been on the boat. Coast guard vessels, a helicopter and private boats are still searching the area.

The sinking came hours after seven people — six children and one woman — drowned when another boat carrying 48 people sank off the island of Farmakonissi to the north.

Greece is the main entry point for hundreds of thousands of people seeking safety or a better life in Europe.

1 p.m.

Norwegian police have halted deportations of asylum-seekers to Russia via a border crossing in the Arctic for the second consecutive day, citing a lack of buses in Norway.

Police spokesman Daniel Drageset says 82 people have, however, been formally arrested inside a camp for refuges facing deportation in Kirkenes, a Norwegian town close to the Russian border, for fear they might flee.

Drageset said Friday about 30 people saw their deportation suspended Thursday "because of lack of staff on the Russian side of the border."

Norway plans to return many of the 5,500 people who rode on bicycles across the Storskog crossing that is closed to pedestrians. Some of the migrants had permits to stay in Russia where they had been living for years and did not qualify for asylum.

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10:45 a.m.

Hungary's prime minister has praised Austria for setting a cap on the number of migrants it will take in, saying "common sense has prevailed."

Viktor Orban said Friday on state radio that the Austrian decision to accept 37,500 refugees this year and a total of 127,500 through 2019 was "the most important news of the past months" and showed that "Europe can't take in huge masses of foreign people in an unlimited, uncontrolled manner."

Orban, who last year built fences on the borders with Serbia and Croatia to stop the migrant flow, said that for Hungary "the best migrant is the migrant who does not come. The best number is zero."

Orban also said that Hungary had exported hundreds of kilometers of its razor wire fence — many of its elements built by convicts in workshops — to Macedonia, Slovenia and Bulgaria.

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8:55 a.m.

Greece's coast guard says at least 21 people have died in two separate sinkings of boats smuggling migrants off two Greek islands overnight. Dozens have survived, and a search and rescue operation is underway for more potential survivors.

The coast guard says a wooden boat carrying 48 people sank in the early hours of Friday off the small island of Farmakonissi in the eastern Aegean. Forty of the passengers managed to make it to shore, while authorities rescued one girl and recovered seven bodies from the sea.

In a separate incident, a wooden sailboat carrying an undetermined number of people sank off the island of Kalolimnos.

The coast guard rescued 26 people and recovered 14 bodies. Coast guard vessels, a helicopter and private boats are searching for survivors.

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