ATHENS - Greece's coast guard has recovered the bodies of four migrants - two women and two children - after their boat sank off the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea, authorities said on Thursday, the third such incident this month.

The coast guard said they had also located 16 survivors from the same boat, which sank after crashing into rocks.

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Greece, in the southeast corner of the European Union, has long been a favored gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. In 2015 nearly one million people landed on its islands.