Greek doctors work to identify parents of injured migrant children after deadly boat collision

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Emotional medical staff on the Greek island of Chios on Wednesday have spoken of frantic efforts to identify the parents of injured children after an overnight collision between a coast guard patrol boat and a speedboat carrying migrants killed at least 15 people and injured more than two dozen others.

Coast guard vessels and a helicopter were still scouring the sea off the eastern coast of Chios, an island located near the Turkish mainland, on Wednesday as it was unclear how many people had been on board the speedboat, the coast guard said. Initial information indicated the vast majority of passengers were Afghans, while one person was identified as a Moroccan national.

Authorities ordered the arrest of the Moroccan man, who was among the injured, on Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of migrant smuggling.

The bodies of 11 men and three women were recovered from the sea shortly after the collision late Tuesday, while one woman who had been hospitalized died a few hours later. Twenty-four people, including 11 children, remained hospitalized Wednesday, as did one of the two coast guard officers who were injured, hospital and coast guard officials said.

Nighttime video footage from a dock in Chios showed injured people being offloaded from a boat and being led to waiting coast guard vehicles, their blue lights flashing. A young child kneels beside someone on the ground wrapped in a foil emergency blanket, holding on with an outstretched arm and resisting being led away before the child is eventually taken to a waiting car, limping.

Hospital doctors told local media Wednesday that the injuries were mainly broken bones, traumatic abdominal injuries and head injuries, while three people were in serious condition in the intensive care unit. Two pregnant women also suffered miscarriages.

“On the pediatric side, one problem we had was finding the parents,” said pediatrician Kirykas Zannikos, pausing to compose himself as his voice broke and he struggled to fight back tears. The children ranged in age from 1 to 15. Some parents were located among the injured on Wednesday, he said, including one mother who was in intensive care.

Olympia Kouvara, a representative of the hospital staff, described the case of one baby that clung to a medical worker's arms as staff tried to locate the parents. Despite fears they were among the dead, the child's mother was later identified as being one of the surgical ward patients.

“There are some times like these when we also break down,” Kouvara told the politischios local news website.

Doctors said that all hospital staff, including administrative staff, rushed to the hospital on Tuesday night to volunteer as those on duty struggled with the sudden influx of injured and dead.

“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 would be conducted “with transparency and professionalism,” Kikilias said.

Greek President Constantine Tassoulas expressed his grief at the loss of life, saying that “the support of the Greek state will be unwavering” for the survivors.

Details of exactly what happened were unclear. According to a coast guard statement, one of its patrol boats came across the speedboat late Tuesday making its way towards Chios without its navigation lights on. The speedboat refused to stop despite sound and visual signals by the patrol boat 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 couldn't be independently verified.

Greece is a major entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and fatalities are common.

Many undertake the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands, often in overcrowded inflatable dinghies or aboard speedboats piloted by smugglers. But increased patrols and allegations of pushbacks — summary deportations without allowing for asylum applications — by Greek authorities have reduced crossing attempts.

“Let me stress something which we cannot stress enough. Every life lost as sea is a tragedy,” EU spokesperson Markus Lammert said. “At the hands of smugglers, too many people risk their lives and lose their lives, and this is exactly what we're working on to prevent.”

In December, the EU 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 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.

This photo provided by the Hellenic Coast Guard on Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2026, shows a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol vessel docked at the port of Chios after being involved in a collision with a speedboat carrying migrants off the eastern Aegean island of Chios late Tuesday. (Hellenic Coast Guard via AP)

Rescue workers and paramedics wait at the port on the eastern Aegean island of Chios, Greece, late Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, after a collision between a migrant speedboat and a coast guard patrol vessel killed multiple people. (Kostas Anagnostou/Eurokinissi via AP)

Greek coast guard officers carry out rescue operations at a port on the eastern Aegean island of Chios, Greece, late Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026, after a collision between a migrant speedboat and a coast guard patrol vessel killed multiple people, authorities said. (Pantelis Fykaris/Politischios.gr via AP)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A new Tennessee law has eased up on two longstanding financial hurdles for people with felony sentences who want their voting rights back, including a unique requirement among states that they must have fully paid their child support costs.

The Republican-supermajority Legislature approved the Democratic-sponsored change, which now lets people prove they have complied for the last year with child support orders, such as payment plans. The legislation also unties the payment of all court costs from voting rights restoration.

Advocates for years have sought various changes to Tennessee’s voting rights restoration system at the statehouse and in court. They say loosening these two rules marks the biggest rollback of restrictions to voting rights restoration in decades.

“This is huge and this is history,” said Keeda Haynes, senior attorney for the advocacy group Free Hearts led by formerly incarcerated women like her.

Most Republicans voted for it and Democrats supported it unanimously. The law took effect immediately upon Republican Gov. Bill Lee's signature last week.

“I think people are at a point where they want to just remove the barriers out of the way and allow people to be fully functional members of society,” said Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper, a bill sponsor.

In 2023 and early 2024, the state decided that the system did require going to court or showing proof of a pardon, not just a paperwork process, and that gun rights were required to restore the right to vote. Election officials said a court ruling made the changes necessary, though voting rights advocates said officials misinterpreted the order.

Last year, lawmakers untangled voting and gun rights. But voting rights advocates opposed some of the bill's other provisions, such as keeping the process in the courts, where costs can rack up if someone isn't ruled indigent.

Easing up on the financial requirements uncommonly split legislative Republicans. For instance, Senate Speaker Randy McNally voted against it, while House Speaker Cameron Sexton supported it, noting that people aren't getting forgiveness on making their payments.

“They need to continue paying that, and as long as they do, then there’s a possibility (to restore their voting rights)," Sexton said. "I really think that’s harder for people to argue against than maybe what something else was.”

Republican Rep. Johnny Garrett, who voted no, said in committee his vote would hinge on whether “there still can be an (child support) arrearage owed beyond that 12 months.”

For some, backed-up child support payments could reach hundreds or thousands of dollars, and court costs could be hundreds or thousands more, said Gicola Lane, Campaign Legal Center's Restore Your Vote community partnership senior manager.

Advocates credited their narrowed focus, omitting goals such as automatic restoration of rights, no longer tying restitution payments to voting rights, or offering a path for certain people to restore their right who are permanently disenfranchised, including those convicted of voter fraud or most murder charges.

The bill passed the Senate last year and the House this year.

Lawmakers gave the child support requirement final passage in 2006 within an overhaul bill that also created a voting rights restoration process outside of court. Critics said the child support rule penalized impoverished parents.

Democrats were then narrowly hanging onto legislative leadership in both chambers. Republicans held a slim Senate majority but GOP defectors voted for a Democratic speaker.

Last year marked the dismissal of a nearly five-year-old federal lawsuit over Tennessee’s voting-rights restoration system. Free Hearts and the Campaign Legal Center represented plaintiffs in the long-delayed case, which saw some election policy changes along the way.

Roughly 184,000 people have completed supervision for felonies and their offenses don't preclude them from restoring their voting rights, according to a plaintiffs expert’s 2023 estimate in the lawsuit. About one in 10 were estimated to have outstanding child support payments, and more than six in 10 owed court courts, restitution or both, the expert said.

Both Republican and Democratic-led states have eased the voting rights restoration process in recent years. Some states have added complexities.

In Florida, after voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2018 restoring the right to vote for people with felony convictions, the Republican-controlled Legislature watered that down by requiring payment of fines, fees and court costs.

Voting rights are automatically restored upon release in nearly half of states. In 15 others, it occurs after parole, probation or a similar period and sometimes requires paying outstanding court costs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In Maine and Vermont, people with felonies keep their voting rights in prison, the NCSL says.

Ten other states including Tennessee require additional government action. Virginia ’s governor must intervene to restore voting rights of people convicted of felonies. In some states, including Tennessee, certain conviction types render someone ineligible.

However, Virginia lawmakers this year have passed a proposed state constitutional amendment to ask voters whether they want automatic voting rights restoration after someone is released from prison. Kentucky lawmakers have proposed a similar change for voters' consideration that would automatically restore voting rights after certain completed sentences, including probation.

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)