A collision between a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek coastguard patrol vessel off the eastern Aegean island of Chios has killed at least 14 people, the coastguard said.<\/p>\n
A search and rescue operation involving four patrol vessels, an air force helicopter and a private boat carrying divers was under way for potential missing passengers.<\/p>\n
The coastguard said another 24 people were rescued and transported to a hospital on Chios, as were two coastguard officers who were injured in the incident. It was unclear how many of the survivors transported to the hospital had been injured.<\/p>\n
The coastguard said it was not immediately clear how many people had been on the speedboat.<\/p>\n
Video footage by a local news site showed at least one person being carried in a blanket from a coastguard boat moored on the side of a jetty into a waiting coastguard vehicle with blue flashing lights, as others appeared to lead two children toward the car.<\/p>\n
The coastguard did not immediately have further information on exactly how the collision occurred, or on the identities of the casualties or the other passengers on the speedboat.<\/p>\n
Greece is a major entry point into the EU for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Fatal accidents are a common occurrence. Many undertake the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in the eastern Aegean.<\/p>\n
But increased patrols and allegations of pushbacks \u2013 summary deportations without allowing for asylum applications \u2013 by Greek authorities have reduced crossing attempts.<\/p>\n
Greece, along with several other EU countries, has been tightening its regulations on migration. In December, the EU was overhauling its migration system, including streamlining deportations and increasing detentions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A collision between a speedboat carrying migrants and a Greek coastguard patrol vessel off the eastern Aegean island…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-406867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}