Seven migrants including two children drown off Greece

Greek authorities say a total of seven bodies, including those of two children, have been recovered from the sea off the eastern Aegean island of Kos after a boat carrying migrants or refugees sank early Jan. 27.

Rescue crews recovered the bodies of three men, two women, a boy and a girl. There were two survivors - a man and a woman.

The bodies were found during a rescue operation that was launched after a survivor reported the sinking.

The man had managed to swim to an islet near Kos, where he raised the alarm, AFP reported.

A search and rescue operation in the area by vessels from the Greek coast guard and the European border patrol agency Frontex, a helicopter and Greek rescue volunteers was called off after all on board the boat were accounted for.

The tragedy comes just five days after 45 people including 20 children drowned off Kalolimnos near Kos on Jan. 22.

More than a million people headed to Europe in search of new lives last year, most of them refugees fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in the continent's worst migration crisis since World War II.

The onset of winter does not appear to have deterred the migrants, with boats still arriving on the Greek islands from Turkey daily.

The United Nations says more than 46,000 people have arrived in Greece so far this year, 31 times more than for all of January 2015.

The EU is mulling allowing states in the passport-free Schengen zone to reintroduce border checks for up to two years to cope with the migration crisis.

Greece's interior minister for migration Ioannis Mouzalas said such an extension would put Greece in a "difficult" situation by making it harder for new arrivals to continue on to northern Europe.