“Twelve migrants died on Monday (October 19, 2026) attempting to cross the Aegean Sea, including six people whose bodies were found after their boat collided with a police vessel,” authorities said.
The Aegean is a much-used route for migrants crossing from Turkey and hoping to reach Europe. There have been many deaths. Another 14 people from the boat, one of them a presumed Iranian organiser, were rescued. One person died and 25 remained missing after a boat filled with migrants sank off the island of Gavdos, near Crete in September.
“A baby and four women were among six people who died off the island of Lesbos on Monday following the collision,” a coast guard official told AFP . “The other six dead — five men and a woman — were on a small boat that capsized off the island of Samos,” the coast guard added. The coast guard official said that in the incident off Lesbos, “a speed boat carrying migrants collided with the port side of a police patrol vessel”. The official said eight people were rescued.
