ATHENS — The bodies of four children, one of them a baby, were among those of seven migrants recovered off the Greek island of Lesbos yesterday (Oct 15) after their wooden boat collided with a Greek coast guard vessel that was on a rescue operation, a Greek Shipping Ministry official said.

The collision occurred shortly after 11 am as the boat, sailing from Turkey, approached the island’s northern coast, the official said.

“It’s not clear exactly what happened,” the official said. “Somehow their boat hit the back of ours.”

Photographs of a child being lifted from the water evoked the wrenching images of a Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, whose body washed up on the Turkish coast last month, provoking global outrage and prompting European authorities to respond to the growing migrant crisis.

Even as European leaders met in Brussels again yesterday to discuss the crisis, and pushed Turkey to stem the flow of migrants, dozens more continued to arrive. The Greek official said that the coast guard boat had been sent to collect arriving migrants, in what has become a daily routine. The accident occurred in relatively calm seas and the official, who asked for anonymity in keeping with government protocol, said the cause would be investigated.

Another 31 migrants were rescued and one was missing, the official added. The nationalities of the migrants were not immediately known. But, according to the ministry official, survivors said their smuggler, a Turk, had handed over control of the boat to a Syrian passenger shortly before it entered Greek waters. The smuggler returned the short distance to Turkey aboard another boat, survivors told Greek rescuers.

The episode was the latest in a grim catalogue of drownings in the Aegean Sea, which has become a favoured crossing point for hundreds of thousands of people seeking a better future in Europe.

On Wednesday, Greek coast guard officers recovered another three bodies, again off the coast of Lesbos: a woman, a baby and an older child.

Almost 400,000 people have arrived in Greece this year, according to the United Nations refugee agency, creating an additional financial burden for the government. Of the nearly 600,000 migrants crossing into Europe this year, more than 3,000 have died or are unaccounted for, according to figures from the International Organisation for Migration.

The Greek authorities have repeatedly appealed for help in handling the influx of migrants, and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras was expected to press his European Union counterparts for additional support at the meeting in Brussels. The union has asked Greece and Turkey to cooperate with each other to curtail the risky passages across the Aegean.

Turkish officials seemed agreeable to a proposal for Greece and Turkey to conduct joint patrols, but the Greek government appears reluctant because of longstanding territorial disputes between the two countries. NEW YORK TIMES