Two Dead in Migrant Shipwreck in Aegean

At least two migrants of unknown nationality died on Friday while trying to cross the Aegean Sea, the Greek coastguard said, adding that another 13 migrants had been rescued.

"For the time being two people are known to have died," a coastguard spokeswoman told AFP.

The incident occurred near the Greek island of Samos, which lies a short distance from the Turkish coast.

A passing ship alerted the coastguard, the spokeswoman said.

In May, another 22 migrants drowned in a similar incident near Samos, and the bodies of another seven people in the same group were never recovered.

Greece is one of the main ports of entry into the European Union for people fleeing war-torn and impoverished countries in Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent.

People traffickers are using Greece's Aegean islands as a preferred route into Europe following a tightening of migration controls along its land border with Turkey.