The coastguard of Greece said that it recovered a woman's body and rescued fifteen migrants after their boat capsized on Friday off the island Kos, in the eastern Aegean sea.

Separately, on Friday the coastguard rescued some 78 migrants who were aboard a wooden boat that was sailing about 23 nautical miles from the tiny island Gavdos located in the south of Greece.

Unnamed coastguard officials said that the migrants were now being transported to Crete, the island next door.

The boat's fate was not immediately known.

In 2015-2016, Greece was the preferred gateway into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa. Nearly 1 million people arrived on its islands by inflatable dinghies.

The number of people dwindled before increasing last year. (Reporting and editing by Stephen Coates; Angeliki Koutantou)

(source: Reuters)