Greek Communists protest, demand justice for 15 migrants killed off the coast of Chios

Images via the KKE

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE), speaking on February 4, 2026 in the plenary session of the Greek Parliament during the debate on the bill of the Ministry of Migration and Asylum for the “promotion of legal migration”, demanded that responsibility be assigned, those guilty be punished and a full investigation be carried out into the real circumstances of the tragedy in Chios. The incident occurred late on the night of February 3 and resulted in the deaths of 15 migrants and refugees.

He stressed that this was not an isolated incident, contrary to the government's portrayal. Rather, it is the outcome of the policies being implemented and the related directives that focus on repression and refoulement instead of rescue, as clearly evidenced by the tragic shipwreck near Pylos in 2023.

He noted that the incident once again undermined the government’s claims of strong cooperation with NATO ally Turkey on migration, as well as the alleged decrease in migration flows compared to Libya, which is often blamed for the arrival of migrants in Crete. There, the government plans to build detention centres instead of shelters for the uprooted.

Koutsoumbas condemned both the policies of repression against refugees and migrants —also driven by racist logic— and the policies aimed at attracting workers, stressing that they are all forms of selection that regulate migration flows based on the needs of capital.

Referring to the bill, he stated that it reflects a deeply class-based policy against the working class, as it promotes so-called legal immigration policies while effectively legalizing an official slave trade. Under this framework, foreign workers will come to Greece to work without their rights being safeguarded and will be treated as human commodities.

A mobilization against this deadly tragedy was held on February 4, 2026 by the Chios Regional Committee of the KKE. Chanting slogans such as “The imperialists are redividing the world, carving out borders with the blood of the peoples” and “They have turned the Aegean into a sea of death, no to the wars of the imperialists”, the demonstrators marched to the port, where they threw flowers into the sea in memory of the 15 victims.