Migrants disembark from a Greek coast vessel after a rescue operation, at the port of Mytilene, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Aug 28, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)

ATHENS - Greece rescued 18 migrants and recovered the bodies of two people, a woman and a man, close to a rocky shore on the island of Lesbos on Wednesday, the coastguard said.

The migrants are believed to have reached the island on a boat amid high winds in the Aegean Sea, a coastguard official said. According to the migrants' accounts, there were about 36 people on board and some had jumped into the sea, she added.

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Coastguards and police searched for more people onshore, the coastguard said.

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Greece was at the frontline of a migrant crisis in 2015 where more than 1 million people, mostly Syrian refugees, crossed from Turkey to the European country by sea.

Migrant flows dropped significantly before rising again this year.