Survivors had said that about 41 people were on board the rubber dinghy that had sailed from Turkey. The Greek broadcaster ERT said they were from Syria, Yemen and Somalia, citing survivors' accounts.

The boat sank after hitting rocks near the island, according to the Greek coast guard.

Mare Liberum, a group monitoring violations of migrants’ rights in the Aegean, said it was "outraged" that people were forced to hide from authorities for fear of being pushed back to Turkey or of facing criminal charges.

Tuesday's shipwreck, amid cold weather and strong winds, was the second in the Aegean Sea within a week. On Sunday (February 5), four children and a woman lost their lives when their boat sank off Leros island. Forty-one people, all from African countries, were rescued, including six children.

In December, two infants aged two months and nine months were found dead on Lesbos – they are thought to have died in separate incidents.

Thousands of people have died during the short but dangerous journey from Turkey on unseaworthy boats. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says that 326 people are known to have died or gone missing on the Eastern Mediterranean route in 2022 – nearly three times as many as in the previous year.

The UNHCR in Greece tweeted earlier this week: "This senseless loss of life has to stop."

With Reuters