A coast guard spokeswoman said conditions in the eastern Aegean Sea were ‘‘very unfavorable,’’ with high winds prevailing.

Migrants, the majority of them refugees from Syria’s civil war, keep trying to enter the European Union despite the cold and rough seas.

ATHENS — Greece’s coast guard said Sunday that 217 migrants were rescued by authorities since the start of the new year in four incidents.

The first casualty of the year, a boy, died on Saturday when an inflatable dinghy carrying 40 people was thrown into rocks off the Greek island of Agathonisi. The others were rescued, including a woman who had been thrown at sea during the crash.


On Sunday, 56 people had been rescued so far, according to the coast guard.

More than a million migrants entered Europe from across the Mediterranean over the last year, which has all but killed the idea of a borderless Europe in which people can travel through most of the continent without showing a passport.

Border checks have been reintroduced in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Sweden, and other countries in what’s supposed to be a passport-free travel zone spanning 26 nations.

Citing exceptional national circumstances related to security, terrorism, and public order, the countries have suspended European Union rules that required them to keep their borders open to each other.

The moves are supposedly temporary but are likely to be extended if Europe’s migrant crisis continues in 2016.