Collision between Greek coastguard vessel, migrant boat kills no less than 14 – Worldwide Dispatch

Greece’s coastguard says 26 different folks have been rescued from Aegean Sea as search-and-rescue operations proceed.

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 no less than 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.

The coastguard mentioned 26 folks have 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 kids and a pregnant lady have been among the many injured, Greek media reported.

A search-and-rescue operation involving patrol boats, a helicopter and divers was below means within the space, AMNA mentioned.

Footage shared by Greece’s Ta Nea newspaper appeared to point out no less than one individual being introduced from a ship docked subsequent to a jetty right into a automobile with blue flashing lights.

An unnamed coastguard official informed 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 achieve Europe.

In 2015 and 2016, Greece was on the entrance line of a migration disaster, with practically a million folks touchdown on its islands, together with in Chios, from close by Turkiye.

However arrivals have dropped lately as Greece ‌has toughened its asylum seeker and migrant insurance policies, together with by tightening border controls and sea ‌patrols.

The nation has come below scrutiny for its ⁠remedy 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 looking for asylum have been pushed again from Greece’s ‍frontiers.

Greece has denied finishing up human rights violations or pushing asylum seekers from its shores.