Eleven migrants travelling from Turkey to Greece were killed when their minibus collided head-on with a lorry near the Greek port city of Kavala, state broadcaster ERA reported Saturday.

Three minors were among those killed in the fiery crash, the cause of which was not initially clear. The driver of the truck is reported to have survived with light injuries.

Greece reports near daily arrests of smugglers carrying migrants from the Turkish border. In the first nine months of the year, 12,000 migrants came to Greece via this land route, official figures show.

However, it is difficult for migrants who want to reach Central and Western Europe by way of Greece, as the so-called ‘Balkan Route’ north through Albania, Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina has largely been closed off and the borders fortified.

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