Athens, January 23 (RHC)-- The death toll from a refugee boat incident off Greek islands has reached 42, including 17 children.  The Greek coast guard said on Friday that dozens of refugees were on board a wooden sailboat which went down off Kalolimnos Island.

The coast guard said it had rescued 26 refugees and recovered the bodies of 34 others in what is regarded as one of the worst incidents in months.  It is not clear why the vessel capsized.

In a separate incident off Farmakonisi Island, six children and two women drowned when their wooden boat crashed into rocks shortly after midnight.  The coast guard said that another 40 migrants on the vessel managed to swim to the shore.

Greek Shipping Minister Thodoris Dritsas said “ruthless human smugglers at the Turkish coast crammed dozens of refugees … in risky and un-seaworthy vessels … [causing them] to perish.”

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said the deaths in the Mediterranean already make the current month the “deadliest January on record.”  The latest incidents bring the number of refugees killed on the eastern Mediterranean route in the past year to at least 900, said IOM spokesman Joel Millman in Geneva.