Three illegal immigrants freeze to death in northern Greece

Dec 27, 2011, 14:27 GMT

Athens - Greek police on Tuesday recovered the bodies of three illegal immigrants, among them a 12-year-old boy and his mother, who froze to death while trying to cross the river that marks the country's northern border with Turkey.

The bodies of the boy and his 59-year-old mother, of Iranian descent, were found along the shores of the Evros River, near the town of Feron, officials said.

A third body, a male of African descent between the ages of 25-30, was found along the shores of the river near the town of Petradon Didimetihou.

Authorities believe they had all attempted to swim across the river from Turkey to Greece and died of hypothermia due to sub-zero temperatures in the area in recent days.

The Greek government has said that it would proceed with the construction of a 12.5 kilometer fence along the Greek-Turkish land border, intended to curb illegal immigration, even though crucial European Union funding was denied.

The structure - to be completed within five months - is to consist of two parallel fences, topped with barbed wire.

Earlier this month, the executive director of the EU's border monitoring agency Frontex, Ilikka Laitinen, said EU states contributing to a Frontex operation on the Greek-Turkish border were becoming reluctant to continue their efforts, as Greek authorities had failed to set up new migrant detention centres as promised.

Some 128,000 undocumented migrants were caught crossing into Greece via its land or sea border with Turkey last year. A further 36,000 migrants were caught in the first nine months of this year, according to official figures.