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A collision betwixt a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek seashore defender patrol vas disconnected the eastbound Aegean land of Chios has killed astatine slightest 15 people, the seashore defender said precocious Tuesday, portion a hunt and rescue cognition involving patrol boats, a chopper and divers was underway for perchance missing people.
The bodies of 14 radical — 11 men and 3 women — were recovered from the sea, the coast defender said, portion different 25 migrants, including astir 11 children, were rescued and transported to a infirmary connected Chios, arsenic were 2 seashore defender officers who were injured successful the incident.
One of the injured women aboriginal died successful hospital, the seashore defender added, bringing the full decease toll to astatine slightest 15.
The full fig of radical who had been connected committee the speedboat was not instantly clear, and a hunt and rescue cognition involving 4 patrol vessels, an aerial unit chopper and a backstage vessel carrying divers was underway for perchance missing passengers
Video footage by a section quality tract showed astatine slightest 1 idiosyncratic being carried successful a broad from a vessel moored connected the broadside of a jetty into a waiting seashore defender conveyance with bluish flashing lights, arsenic others look to pb 2 children, 1 of them limping, toward the car.
The Greek seashore defender performs a hunt and rescue operation, pursuing a migrant boat's collision with a seashore defender vas disconnected the Aegean land of Chios, adjacent Mersinidi, Greece, February 4, 2026.
Konstantinos Anagnostou / REUTERS
The seashore defender did not instantly person further accusation connected precisely however the collision occurred.
Michalis Giannakos, the caput of Greece's nationalist infirmary workers' union, said unit astatine the infirmary successful Chios were each connected alert to grip the abrupt influx of injured and were connected standby for perchance much people. Speaking connected Greece's Open TV channel, Giannakos said respective of the injured required surgery.
Greece is simply a large introduction constituent into the European Union for radical fleeing struggle and poorness successful the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Fatal accidents are a communal occurrence. Many undertake the abbreviated but often perilous crossing from the Turkish seashore to adjacent Greek islands successful the eastbound Aegean. But accrued patrols and allegations of pushbacks — summary deportations without allowing for asylum applications — by Greek authorities person reduced crossing attempts.
Greece, on with respective different European Union countries, has been tightening its regulations connected migration. In December, the European Union was overhauling its migration system, including streamlining deportations and expanding detentions.
There has agelong been a fierce statement among EU members astir migration. Since a surge successful asylum-seekers and different migrants to Europe a decennary ago, nationalist statement connected the contented has shifted and far-right parties person gained governmental power. EU migration policies person hardened, and the fig of asylum-seekers is down from grounds levels.
Greek exigency unit hold to transportation bodies of dormant migrants, pursuing a migrant boat's collision with a seashore defender vas disconnected the land of Chios, successful the larboard of Chios, Greece, February 3, 2026.
Konstantinos Anagnostou / REUTERS
Last month, the United Nation's migration bureau warned hundreds of migrants whitethorn beryllium missing astatine oversea oregon feared dead pursuing reports of aggregate deadly shipwrecks successful the cardinal Mediterranean successful January.
The International Organization for Migration said it was "deeply concerned" by the reports, which it was moving to verify.
"Several boats are believed to person been progressive implicit the past 10 days, with preliminary accusation suggesting that hundreds of radical whitethorn beryllium missing astatine oversea oregon feared dead," a connection said.
"In conscionable the archetypal weeks of 2026, hundreds of radical are already feared to beryllium missing," the IOM connection said, informing that "the last toll whitethorn beryllium importantly higher."
The IOM highlighted that the Central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migration corridor successful the world, with astatine slightest 1,340 radical losing their lives determination past twelvemonth alone.
Between 2014 and the extremity of 2025, much than 33,000 migrants died oregon went missing successful the Mediterranean, according to the IOM's Missing Migrants Project.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
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