The Greek Coast Guard said that it found two women's bodies and 39 other migrants in the Aegean sea on the small island of Farmakonisi on Monday and was conducting an investigation to determine the cause of death.

They said that the circumstances surrounding the death were not clear.

Officials from the coast guard said that Greek authorities had been informed earlier in the day that the migrants reached the island just six miles away (9.7 kilometers) from the Turkish coast. They added they were still looking for survivors of a possible shipwreck.

The survivors were taken to nearby Leros Island.

Greece is located in the southeast corner, which is the European Union. It has been the preferred gateway for refugees and migrants from the Middle East and Africa to enter Europe.

Since 2015, the coast guard has saved over 250,000 people, during a time when Greece was in the forefront of Europe's migration crises and almost one million people, including Farmakonisi from Turkey, landed on its island. According to the U.N. refugee agency, thousands of people have drowned at sea.

In the last month, seven migrants, including a boy, a girl, and two women drowned when their boat capsized off the island Lesbos. (Reporting and editing by Bernadette B. Baum; Renee Maltezou)

(source: Reuters)