At least 46 people, including 17 children, have died in the Aegean Sea after two overcrowded boats carrying Europe-bound migrants overturned near the Geek coast Friday.

The first boat overturned near the Greek island of Farmakonisi, while the second boat tragedy occurred near Kalolimnos, Greek's Coast Guard said, according to The Chicago Tribune.

The Coast Guard added that it had recovered 35 bodies, including 17 women and 11 children, from the shipwreck of the second boat. Eleven bodies, including six children and one woman, were recovered from the site of first boat tragedy near Farmakonisi, Al Jazeera reported.

More than 30,000 migrants and refugees have arrived in Greece by sea since the start of 2016, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said earlier this week, according to VOA News.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has already criticized European leadership for its poor handling of the migrant crisis.

"I feel shamed as a member of this European leadership, both for the inability of Europe in dealing with this human drama, and for the level of debate at a senior level, where one is passing the buck to the other. These are hypocritical, crocodile tears which are being shed for the dead children on the shores of the Aegean," Tsipras said in his parliamentary speech few months back, as HNGN previously reported.

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