Efforts continue to locate migrants from capsized boat

Greek coast guard patrols and volunteer fishermen on Tuesday were continuing the search for a group of migrants believed missing after their boat capsized off the coast of the island of Lesvos on Monday, killing two of the passengers on board.

Reports on Monday suggested that there were four or five passengers still missing from the rubber dinghy that capsized in choppy waters between the coast of Turkey and the eastern Aegean island as the migrants, possibly Syrian refugees, were trying to make their way to the European Union.

Greece is struggling with an unprecedented wave of migrants and asylum-seekers from the war-torn Middle East and Asia arriving on the islands of its sea border in their hundreds every day, putting particular strain on islands like Lesvos that are near the coast of transit country Turkey.

As the search continued on Tuesday morning, a ferry boat chartered by the Greek government was expected to arrive at the country's main port of Piraeus later in the day carrying nearly 2,500 migrants from Lesvos to the Greek capital.

The Greek government has come under fire from its European Union partners and international organizations for failing to speed up the process of registering incoming migrants and identifying those with legitimate asylum claims.