Greece’s coastguard says 26 different folks have been rescued from Aegean Sea as search-and-rescue operations proceed.
Printed On 3 Feb 2026
A ship carrying migrants and asylum seekers has collided with a Greek coastguard vessel within the Aegean Sea close to the island of Chios, killing a minimum of 14 folks, the coastguard says.
The incident occurred round 9pm native time on Tuesday (19:00 GMT) off the coast of Chios’s Mersinidi space, Greece’s Athens-Macedonian Information Company (AMNA) reported.
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The coastguard mentioned 26 folks had been rescued and dropped at a hospital in Chios, together with 24 migrants and two coastguard officers.
It mentioned it was not instantly clear what number of others had been on the speedboat.
Seven youngsters and a pregnant girl had been among the many injured, Greek media reported.
A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was underneath approach within the space, AMNA mentioned.
Footage shared by Greece’s Ta Nea newspaper appeared to indicate a minimum of one particular person being introduced from a ship docked subsequent to a jetty right into a automobile with blue flashing lights.
An unnamed coastguard official instructed the Reuters information company that the collision occurred after the migrant boat “manoeuvred towards” a coastguard vessel that had instructed it to show again.
Greece has lengthy been a key transit level for migrants and refugees from the Center East, Africa and Asia making an attempt to succeed in Europe.
In 2015 and 2016, Greece was on the entrance line of a migration disaster, with almost a million folks touchdown on its islands, together with in Chios, from close by Turkiye.
However arrivals have dropped in recent times as Greece has toughened its asylum seeker and migrant policies, together with by tightening border controls and sea patrols.
The nation has come underneath scrutiny for its treatment of migrants and asylum seekers approaching by sea, together with after a shipwreck in 2023 by which lots of of migrants and refugees died after what witnesses mentioned was the coastguard’s try and tow their trawler.
The European Union’s border company mentioned final 12 months that it was reviewing 12 instances of potential human rights violations by Greece, together with some allegations that individuals searching for asylum had been pushed again from Greece’s frontiers.
Greece has denied finishing up human rights violations or pushing asylum seekers from its shores.
