The number of migrants and refugees entering Europe by sea last month was roughly the same as for the whole of 2014, United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said.

Twenty-eight refugees drowned off a Greek island yesterday when their boat sank, the coastguard said, thought to be the largest recorded death toll from any single accident in Greek waters since the refugee crisis began.

Greek authorities have launched a search and rescue operation in the eastern Aegean after a boat carrying dozens of migrants sank between the small islands of Agathonisi and Farmakonisi, near the Turkish coast.

Seven immigrants drowned when a boat sank in the eastern Aegean Sea after travelling illegally from Turkey, authorities in Greece said today.