ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greek coast guard boats and a helicopter scoured the sea near an eastern Aegean island on Wednesday after an overnight collision between a patrol boat and a speedboat carrying migrants killed at least 15 people and injured more than two dozen.
Accotrding to the coast guard, initial information indicated most of those on board the speedboat were from Afghanistan. Twenty-four people, including 11 children, were hospitalized on the island of Chios following the collision late on Tuesday night, it said.
Hospital director Christos Tsiahris told Greek newspaper Proto Thema that three of the injured were in serious condition and were being treated in the intensive care unit, while 10 children under the age of 15 were hospitalized in the pediatric ward.
Two coast guard officers were also injured in the collision, with one remaining hospitalized Wednesday, the coast guard said.
“Our sorrow for the loss of 15 human lives in Chios is unspeakable,” said Maritime Affairs Minister Vassilis Kikilias, under whose responsibility the coast guard falls. “Modern-day smugglers, traffickers, are the enemies of the country. They put human lives in mortal danger, both of those unfortunate people and of the members of the coast guard.”
An investigation into the incident would be conducted “with transparency and professionalism,” Kikilias said.
The bodies of 11 men and three women were recovered from the sea shortly after the collision and one woman died later in hospital, the coast guard said.
But the total number of people who had been on the speedboat was not clear. Four patrol boats, two helicopters and divers began the search overnight, which continued Wednesday morning with a helicopter and patrol vessels.
Details of exactly what happened were unclear. According to a coast guard statement Wednesday, one of its patrol boats came across the speedboat late Tuesday night making its way towards Chios without its navigation lights on. The speedboat refused to stop despite sound and visual signals by the patrol boat crew and changed direction, colliding with the patrol boat and capsizing, the statement said.
Photos posted by the coast guard showed signs of abrasion on the patrol boat's right side. The coast guard’s account could not be independently verified.
Michalis Giannakos, the head of Greece’s public hospital workers’ union, said Tuesday night that staff at the hospital in Chios were placed on alert overnight to handle the sudden influx of injured and dead. Speaking on 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, and fatal accidents are common.
Many undertake the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in the eastern Aegean, often in overcrowded inflatable dinghies. Others use high-speed vessels piloted by smugglers who deposit them on the island and then return to Turkey. But increased patrols and allegations of pushbacks — summary deportations without allowing for asylum applications — by Greek authorities have reduced crossing attempts.
Greece, along with several other European Union countries, has been tightening its regulations on migration. In December, the European Union was overhauling its migration system, including streamlining deportations and increasing detentions.
There has long been a fierce debate among EU members about migration. Since a surge in asylum-seekers and other migrants to Europe a decade ago, public debate on the issue has shifted and far-right parties have gained political power. EU migration policies have hardened, and the number of asylum-seekers is down from record levels.
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