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Greek coast guard rescues hundreds off eastern Aegean islands, 1 toddler found unconscious

Associated Press
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Migrants rest by their tents while waiting to be registered at the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015. More than 130,000 migrants have reached Greece so far in 2015, straining the country's resources. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) (The Associated Press)

An Iraqi migrant girl rescued from a dinghy when crossing the sea from Turkey, stands at an unofficial tent camp, on the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, late Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. Greek authorities say they are planning to use a ferry currently docked at the island of Kos to transport up to 2,500 migrants to a northern port. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) (The Associated Press)

Migrants rescued from their dinghy in their attempt to cross the sea from Turkey disembark a coast guard boat at a port as the ferry Eleftherios Venizelos, background, with Syrian migrants on board leaves the southeastern island of Kos, Greece, Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2015, to travel to Thessaloniki. The ferry, which has served as a temporary migrant screening center, has about 1,700 people on board and will pick up hundreds more from other islands on the way. More than 130,000 migrants have reached Greece so far in 2015, straining the country's resources. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) (The Associated Press)

Greece's coast guard says it has rescued hundreds of migrants in more than a dozen search and rescue operations, including one in which a toddler was found unconscious in one of the overcrowded dinghies.

The coast guard said Wednesday it had picked up 534 migrants in 14 incidents off the coasts of the eastern Aegean islands of Lesbos, Chios, Agathonissi, Samos, Farmakonissi and Kos from Tuesday morning to Wednesday morning.

Separately, it said a child of about 2 or 3 years old was found unconscious in a dinghy spotted by a patrol helicopter and carrying 54 migrants off Samos. A coast guard vessel picked up the group and the child was transported to a hospital.

Greece has been overwhelmed with record numbers of migrant arrivals this year, most from Syria.