smart phones, their identity cards. they ve told me they have the phone numbers programmed in their phones of the greek coast guard should their boats get into trouble while making hour-long journey across the sea from turkey. and they even post distress gps signals on facebook to alert the greek authorities. so these are very coordinated, very organized migrants who are coming here to greece everyday. well, they need something going for them because we re looking at this video right now of these people that just came ashore and that is one crowded boat. so we re glad they made it safely and we hope that the trip onward will be a safe one as well. that man certainly is relieved. ivan watson talking with us. thanks so much, ivan. in italy, most migrants are coming there from african countries ravaged by war or some by poverty.
they re not migrants. migrants is someone who chooses to go to another country because they are looking for a better job, education or to reunite thr family. they can choose to go back to their country and know they have the protection of their government. where as refugees are little rattra literally running for their lives. traveling through macedonia and serbia and hungary, often times on foot. trying to reach germany and spe sweden which have more favorable migrant rules. refugees landing on the greek island of lepos, senior correspondent ivan watson is on a boat nearby and he joins me now on the phone with more about the situation there that he s been seeing. ivan, hello.
garbage. they are living in garbage. you see the children there, the parnlts trying to offer them comfort that they can. a lot of them have been getting sick especially at night. as i was saying, it gets to be cold. this is not providing enough for them. they lack things like blankets and sleeping bags. many failing to understand this is how they are being treated when they finally reach europe, they thought their dignity and basic rights would be respected. your reports bring it vividly to life for us. thank you for that. we want to talk about what s going on in turkey. rescue crews saving a boatful of migrants. right near the beach where the toddler s body washed ashore. cnn senior correspondent ivan watson joined us from turkey. what did you see, ivan?
generally scary they appear. general hertling, stand by. we want to move over to iraq now, we have new details coming in an attack near the u.s. consulate in the kurdish iraqi city of erbil. isis now claiming responsibility for the suicide car bomb blast. officials say at least four people were killed, 18 injured but all u.s. consulate personnel are safe and accounted for. let s bring in cnn international correspondent ivan watson. ivan, what else do we know about this blast? good morning, joe. well, a suicide car bomb, it doesn t succeed in damaging the u.s. consulate. and, again, as you mentioned all the diplomats there. none of them were harmed. but it has put the kurdish safe haven on edge. and shattered the calm that people have enjoyed there. certainly ripped through a number of restaurants and cafes frequented by foreigners in a
ivan talked about general al douri being killed. this was an individual who we began to look for when i was in iraq in 2007 and 2008. he was on the original deck of card, and he was one of the few people who were not captured. we always suspected he was in kirkuk and the isis state coming out of mosul. so, all of these things are starting to fit together. isis has continually gotten stronger in this sector. now, let s move quickly to australia. police there have arrested five people in a counterterrorism operation. one teenager apparently charged. and authorities say the suspects are individuals acts by themselves. not representatives, say a religious, cultural or national group. give me a sense how big a threat, lone wolf attacks are particularly there?