Greek coast guard ship 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 Tuesday, while a search and rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was underway 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 25 other migrants, including around 11 children, were rescued and taken to a hospital in Chios, as were two coast guard officers 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 on board the speedboat was not immediately clear, and a search and rescue operation involving four patrol boats, an air force helicopter and a private boat carrying divers was underway to search for potentially missing passengers.

Video footage from a local news site shows at least one person being carried in a blanket from a boat moored at the side of a pier to a waiting Coast Guard vehicle with flashing blue lights, while others appear to lead two children, one of whom was limping, toward the car.

The coast guard did not immediately have further information on the exact circumstances of the collision.

Michalis Giannakos, president of the Greek union of public hospital employees, said Chios hospital staff were on alert to deal with the sudden influx of injured people and were ready to potentially accommodate more people. Speaking to Greek channel Open TV, Giannakos said several of the injured had required surgery.

Greece is a major gateway into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Fatal accidents are a common phenomenon. Many undertake the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to the neighboring Greek islands in the eastern Aegean Sea. But increased patrols and allegations of pushbacks – summary expulsions without asylum authorization – by Greek authorities have reduced crossing attempts.

Greece, along with several other European Union countries, has tightened their migration regulations. In December, the European Union overhauled its migration system, including streamlining expulsions and increasing detentions.

There has long been a fierce debate among EU members over migration. Since the number of asylum seekers and other migrants in Europe increased a decade ago, 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 down from record levels.

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

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

“Several boats are believed to have been involved over the past ten days, with preliminary information suggesting that hundreds of people may be missing at sea or dead,” a statement said.

“In the first weeks of 2026, there are already fears that hundreds of people may be missing,” the IOM statement said, warning that “the final toll could be significantly higher.”

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

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