2023-06-17 10:18:45
- Nick Peck in Kalamata and George Wright and Paul Kirby in London
- BBC News
A picture of the boat that was carrying regarding 750 migrants before it sank
About 500 people are still missing following a boat carrying illegal immigrants sank off the Greek coast, according to the United Nations Human Rights Office.
Jeremy Lawrence, a spokesman for the UN office, said that the victims of that “horrific tragedy” that left 78 people dead, including a number of women and children.
He added that the huge loss of life confirms that there is an urgent need to bring people smugglers to justice, and more broadly “there are many questions that need to be asked.”
Lawrence also said that search and rescue operations at sea were “a legal and humanitarian imperative”.
In a joint statement with the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that any search and rescue operation is what must be done to prevent loss of life.
“growing questions
Since the fishing boat carrying up to 750 people sank 50 nautical miles off Pylos in southern Greece, the coast guard’s role has come under increasing scrutiny.
Greek authorities face growing questions regarding whether they can do more to prevent the ship from capsizing.
Greek authorities have now admitted that the coastguard attempted to board the boat, in the hours before it sank, to assess the danger. But they stressed that they did not launch a large-scale rescue, because the migrants refused to help and the unflagged boat was not assessed as being in danger.
Earlier, the head of the Greek caretaker government, Ioannis Sarmas, said that “a comprehensive investigation will be opened with the aim of revealing what happened in addition to some technical matters related to the accident” to determine the cause of the sinking of the boat.
Greek officials have denied what was stated in a series of reports indicating that the boat sank following two o’clock in the morning last Wednesday because it was tied with a rope by the coast guard units.
Initially, the coast guard said he kept an “appropriate distance” from the boat. But the Greek newspaper Kathimerini then quoted a source as saying that members of the coast guard tied a rope to the boat so that they might check the conditions, and then the people on board untied that rope to continue the journey to Italy.
image copyright GEETHA
Search operations are still going on, hoping to find survivors
A refugee activist was the first to raise the issue of whether a rope had been attached to the migrant boat, following she said that people on the boat told her they feared the tying would cause the boat to capsize.
But since this tragedy occurred, there is a denial of the chronology of what happened and its narrative. The Greek Coast Guard stressed that from the first moment it was in contact with the crew, no help was requested, and the boat crew refused more repeated offers of help.
“urgent help”
Alarm Phone, an organization providing support to migrants at sea, sent an email Tuesday followingnoon warning the coast guard and others that up to 750 people were on the boat and they were seeking urgent help.
The organisation, which operates a hotline for migrants in danger at sea, said those on board were told at 1520 GMT on Tuesday that the captain had escaped in a small boat.
After 14 minutes, the migrants said, “The boat is overcrowded and moving from side to side.”
This is when the Greek coast guard said an English-language speaker on board insisted the ship was “in no danger” and did not need help.
The NGO also indicated that the migrants did not want to be intercepted by the Greek forces, due to widespread reports of ill-treatment and deportation to their country, which Athens constantly denies.
How did the boat sink?
There were many stories regarding this, and two accounts of survivors of the accident indicated that tying a rope to the fishing boat may have been the reason behind its sinking.
The source of one of the accounts was a local council official in the Greek port city of Kalamata, who had earlier spoken to a 24-year-old Syrian.
image copyright Archyde.com
The Greek police arrested some of the survivors, including Egyptians
“The coast guard boat tied them to some ropes and tried to drag them to the left. For some unknown reason, the boat veered to the right and suddenly sank,” said Tassos Polychronopoulos.
A survivor gave a similar account to former prime minister Alexis Tsipras during a visit to Kalamata on Thursday.
“The Greek coast guard told the ship to follow them, but they mightn’t. Then the coast guard threw a rope but because they didn’t know how to pull the rope, the boat started swaying left and right,” a translator told Tsipras.
He added, “The coast guard boat was moving very fast but the boat was already tilting to the left, and so it sank.”
Greek television reported that nine people, including a number of Egyptians, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in human trafficking.
Georgios Vassilakos, a volunteer rescue doctor with the Hellenic Red Cross, told the BBC that there were no women and children among the survivors.
He added that the survivors reported that “all the women and children were isolated at the bottom of the boat.”
He continued, “For this reason, and the successive events and the capsizing of the boat that happened very quickly, the victims were not able to get out in time.” He suggested that those on board drank sea water for at least two days before it sank.
A number of families of the missing persons arrived in Kalamata in search of their loved ones.
Aftab, who traveled from the UK, said at least four of his relatives from Pakistan are missing. “My relatives were on the boat,” he said.
A Syrian man from the Netherlands collapsed as he confirmed that his wife and son-in-law were missing.
Qassam Abu Zeid said: “The authorities are searching for their bodies in the sea. They are searching in hospitals and searching among the bodies and among the survivors.”
Greece is one of the main gateways to the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last month, the Greek government came under international criticism over a video showing the forced expulsion of migrants who washed up on the coast of Greece.
Measures to combat illegal immigration
Meanwhile, Egypt mourned the victims of the accident, who included Egyptians, and criticized “the exploitation of organized gangs for people looking for better opportunities for life and work, and endangering their lives through illegal immigration.”
In a statement on Friday, the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Egypt had taken decisive measures over the past years to control borders and prevent the exit of illegal immigrants across its coasts.
Cairo stated that its embassy in Athens is following up, with the relevant Greek authorities, developments in search and rescue operations and the recovery of the bodies of the victims to confirm the identity and numbers of the Egyptian victims, as well as the situation of the survivors whose identities have been identified to provide them with the necessary services, according to the statement.
The Greek authorities have arrested nine Egyptians suspected of being smugglers, according to the Greek News Agency.
The European Union’s border agency Frontex says migrant crossings across the central Mediterranean into Europe more than doubled in 2023 compared to last year.
Some 50,000 people are believed to have used the road in the first five months of this year, the highest number recorded since 2017.
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