Greek coast guard boat and migrant speedboat collide, killing at least 15 people

A collision between a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek coast guard patrol boat off the eastern Aegean island of Chios has killed at least 15 people, the coast guard said on Tuesday night, as a search and rescue operation was carried out with patrol boats, a helicopter and divers to search for potentially missing people.

The bodies of 14 people (11 men and three women) were recovered from the sea, the coast guard said, while another 25 migrants, including about 11 children, were rescued and transported to a hospital in Chios, as were two coast guard officers who were injured in the incident.

One of the injured women later died in hospital, the coast guard added, bringing the total death toll to at least 15.

The total number of people who were aboard the speedboat was not immediately clear, and a search and rescue operation was underway involving four patrol vessels, an air force helicopter and a private boat carrying divers to locate potentially missing passengers.

Video footage from a local news site showed at least one person being carried in a blanket from a boat tied to the side of a pier to a waiting coast guard vehicle with flashing blue lights, while others appeared to lead two children, one of them limping, toward the car.

The coast guard did not immediately have more information about how exactly the collision occurred.

Michalis Giannakos, head of Greece’s public hospital workers’ union, said all staff at the Chios hospital were on alert to deal with the sudden influx of wounded and were waiting to potentially receive more people. Speaking to Greece’s Open TV channel, Giannakos said several of the injured required surgery.

Greece is a major entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Fatal accidents They are common. Many undertake the short but often dangerous journey from the Turkish coast to the nearby Greek islands in the eastern Aegean. But increased patrols and accusations of pushbacks (summary deportations without regard to asylum applications) by Greek authorities have reduced attempts to cross.

Greece, along with several other European Union countries, has been tightening its migration regulations. In December, the European Union was reforming its immigration system, including streamlining deportations and increasing detentions.

There has long been an intense debate among EU members about migration. Since there was a surge in asylum seekers and other migrants to Europe a decade ago, the public debate on the issue has changed and far-right parties have gained political power. EU migration policies have tightened and the number of asylum seekers is below record levels.

Last month, the United Nations migration agency warned that hundreds of migrants may be missing at sea or feared dead following reports of multiple deadly shipwrecks in the central Mediterranean in January.

The International Organization for Migration said it was “deeply concerned” by the reports, which it was working to verify.

“Several vessels are believed to have been involved over the past 10 days, and preliminary information suggests that hundreds of people may be missing at sea or feared dead,” a statement said.

“In the first weeks of 2026 alone, hundreds of people are already feared missing,” the IOM statement said, warning that “the final number may be significantly higher.”

The IOM highlighted that the central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migration corridor in the world, where at least 1,340 people lost their lives last year alone.

Between 2014 and the end of 2025, more than 33,000 migrants died or went missing in the Mediterranean, according to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project.