Hundreds Of Migrants Rescued From Aegean Sea

Coastguards have rescued hundreds more migrants paddling from Turkey to Greece as authorities prepare to transport another 2,500 to a northern port.

Authorities have been conducting regular search and rescue missions including one in which a toddler was found unconscious in an overcrowded dinghy.

In just 24 hours some 534 people were picked up in 14 incidents off the coasts of Lesbos, Chios, Agathonissi, Samos, Farmakonissi and Kos.

Exhausted migrants from Middle Eastern and Asian countries including Mauritius, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, Burma and Afghanistan jumped into the sea and desperately swam towards the coast.

Families that made the journey from Turkey in flimsy inflatable dinghies hugged each other when they reached the safety of the shore.

A ferry that was being used as a temporary migrant screening centre off the Greek island of Kos left with 1,700 migrants on Wednesday morning, heading for a northern port.

The Eleftherios Venizelos is acting as a floating accommodation and registration centre and will stop off at Thessaloniki and pick up hundreds more people from other islands on the way.

On Kos, hundreds of migrants have found temporary refuge inside the Captain Elias, a two-story crumbling hotel.

Greece must show "much more leadership" to tackle an escalating crisis in which 160,000 refugees and migrants have reached its shores so far this year, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Most of the migrants say they intend to head through the Balkans to claim asylum in wealthier countries such as Germany.