Aegean Tragedy: Migrant Boat Capsizes, Leaving 15 Dead
4th February 2026
A Greek Coast Guard vessel and a boat carrying migrants collided in the Aegean Sea, killing 15 people, according to authorities on Wednesday, February 4th—updating the previous death toll.
The incident occurred on Tuesday off the island of Chios, near Turkey. According to a Coast Guard statement, the pilot of a high-speed boat—operating without navigation lights and carrying foreign passengers—failed to comply with the Coast Guard’s visual and audible signals.
Instead, the pilot turned around, and the boat then collided with the starboard side of the Coast Guard patrol boat…. the force of the impact caused the boat to capsize and sink.
Fourteen bodies were retrieved from the sea, including three women. Another woman, who was pulled out alive, later died of her injuries, the coastguard reported. Among those rescued were 11 children who have been taken to a hospital, along with two injured coastguards.
The tragedy follows an earlier incident in January, where a boat carrying more than 50 migrants sank off the Greek island of Ikaria.
The perpetrators don’t care, since they get paid up front—sort of a scene out of the movie Casablanca. (“I repeat—in cash!”)