Fourteen migrants dead off Greece after boat collision with coast guard

ATHENS, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Fourteen migrants died in the Aegean Sea off Greece on Tuesday after their boat collided with a coast guard vessel off the island of Chios, the coast guard said.

A coastguard official said they spotted a dingy transporting migrants towards Chios, which lies a few miles off the coast of Turkey, and ordered them to turn back. 

"The smugglers manoeuvred toward the coast guard vessel causing a collision," the official told Reuters.

Reuters was unable to independently verify how exactly the collision occurred. The nationality of the migrants was not clear. 

Two coast guard officers were injured and transferred to hospital and 24 migrants have been rescued, a second official told Reuters. Witnesses reported that about 30-35 people were on board, a government official said.

The coast guard said that a search and rescue was underway with coast guard vessels, private boats and divers assisting the operation.

Greece, in the southeast corner of the European Union, has long been a favoured gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

In 2015-2016, Greece was at the frontline of Europe's migration crisis and nearly one million people landed on its islands, including Chios, from Turkey. 

In recent years, arrivals have dropped and Greece has toughened its stance on migrants. Since 2019, the centre-right government has reinforced border controls with fences and sea patrols.

Greece has come under scrutiny for its treatment of migrants and refugees approaching by sea, including one shipwreck in 2023 in which hundreds of migrants died after what witnesses said was the coastguard’s attempt to tow their trawler.

The EU border agency said last year that it was reviewing 12 cases of potential human rights violations by Greece, including some allegations migrants seeking asylum were pushed back from Greece's frontiers.

Greece denies that it violates human rights or that it forcefully returns asylum seekers from its shores.

(Reporting by Lefteris Papadimas, Yannis Souliotis and Renne Maltezou; Editing by Edward McAllister)