Greece recovers two dead migrants off Samos island

ATHENS (Reuters) – Greece has recovered the bodies of two migrants – a man and a woman – who had been missing after a boat sank off the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, the country’s coastguard said on Monday.

Another 22 people who boarded the same boat have been rescued amid fair weather and the rescue operation has ended, a coastguard official said.

Greece was a main gateway for migrants in 2015-2016 when more than a million people, mostly Syrian refugees, crossed from neighbouring Turkey to the country’s outlying eastern islands, mostly on flimsy dinghies.

The number of arrivals dropped before surging again last year with many migrants attempting a new southern route via the island of Gavdos.