Coast Guard says Migrant Death Toll is at 27 after Boat Capsizes near Turkey

At least 27 migrants have died after their boat from Turkey to Greece capsized on Monday, the Turkish coast guard said. At least 11 of the migrants were children.

A total of four passengers were saved after the boat sank in the Bay of Edremit. The boat was headed for the Greek Island of Lesbos.

The coast guard is currently on a search-and-rescue mission to locate nine missing passengers. The mission is being backed by helicopters.

The increasing death toll in the Mediterranean Sea has pressured many leaders to find ways of monitoring the migrant situation between Turkey and Greece. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stressed the importance of being able to use NATO's surveillance capabilities to better monitor the situation in the Aegean Sea.

While leaders are trying to figure out how to deal with the growing influx of refugees, the migrant refugee crisis continues to worsen. Thousands of Syrians from Aleppo, one of the country's largest cities, have been forced to flee north toward the Turkish border after pro-government forces have stormed Aleppo with the help of Russian bombs.

Turkey, however, has yet to open the border to the refugees who are camping out nearby. Many of the migrants who are in Turkey will make dangerous journeys to Europe.

Greece announced Monday that it will open migrant registration centers next week after being pressured by members of the European Union who want Greece to stop its passport-free travel policy unless the country actively does something to contain all of the refugees who travel there from Turkey.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported that as of Feb. 5, a total of 374 migrants either died or went missing on their journey to Greece.