At least four migrants got missing in the Aegean Sea, south of the Greek island of Samos.
Officials from the European border protection agency Frontex and the Greek coastguard pulled 18 people to safety from a small motorboat in distress on Wednesday night, the coastguard said.
According to those rescued, four people had fallen into the water.
An extensive search operation had been launched, the coastguard said.
Migrants were frequently picked up from boats in the Aegean Sea and the eastern Mediterranean as people’s smugglers try to bring them from the Turkish coast to Greece or Italy. This often leads to accidents and fatalities.
According to UN figures, at least 326 people died in the region in 2022.
The authorities in Athens fear that more migrants could again try to reach the EU by boat as a result of the earthquake catastrophe in Turkey and Syria.
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