Migrants wearing life jackets are seen in the sea next to a Greek Coast Guard vessel after a collision between the vessel and a wooden boat carrying the migrants and refugees off the Greek island of Lesbos October 15, 2015. Reuters

AFP/Ankara

Sixteen migrants drowned Saturday when one boat sank off the Turkish coast and another near the Greek island of Kalymnos as they were seeking to reach Greece, while around 36 others were rescued.
The Turkish coastguard recovered the bodies from the wooden boat, which had sailed from northwest Turkey's seaside town of Ayvalik headed for the Greek island of Lesbos, the Turkish news agency said.
The rescuers managed to save about two dozen others on board the sinking boat who had called for help on their cellphones, Turkish media reported.

In the mishap near the island of Kalymnos, three were children of the four drowned. The children and a woman, whose nationalities were not disclosed, drowned when their boat capsized near the Greek island of Kalymnos, the coastguard said.

Nearly 300 people trying to escape conflict and poverty in their home countries have died in the Aegean Sea this year according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

Deadly sinkings occur nearly every day.

On Thursday, a wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants sank near the island of Lesbos after colliding with a Greek coastguard vessel.

Seven people including four children died, and the body of another woman was found on Friday.

Three more people including a young girl and a baby died off Lesbos on Wednesday.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR has reported an increase in the number of migrant boats arriving from Turkey this week.

"The surge in arrivals could be the result of a temporary improvement in the weather, a rush to beat the onset of winter, and a fear that European borders may soon close," UNHCR said Friday.