Greece: Coast guard faces accusations after ship tragedy
June 24, 2023
The area surrounding the harbor administration building in Kalamata, Greece, is deserted now. But a week or so ago, the place was filled with hundreds of people from many European countries looking for relatives and friends who might have been caught in the catastrophic naval accident off the coast of this city in southern Greece.
But even though teams are still working at the site of the disaster, any hope of finding survivors has long since evaporated.
In a cafe near the building, a Syrian man of about 40 takes some papers from his briefcase. He has been living in Germany for many years, he says with a slight Bavarian accent. He does not want his name published.
In his hand, he is holding copies of his 16-year-old nephew's identity papers. "We were last in contact three weeks ago. I found out on Facebook that he was on the ship," he says.
He tells DW he had been to the harbor administration every day to look for information about his nephew and a friend traveling with him. But their names are not registered at the hospital, where some of the 104 survivors are still being treated, or in the lists of those who have already been taken to a camp near Athens.
"At the hospital, they didn't give me any information. They said it was a matter of data protection," he says.
'The world watches on'
On Monday night, the coast guard found three more bodies in the water. So far, 81 bodies have been retrieved altogether, and now have to be identified. Greek authorities have started taking DNA samples from relatives.
The Syrian man can't say yet whether his nephew is among the dead, and he won't be able to send his sister in Syria any news of her son today, either. This afternoon, he has to fly back to Germany to work. He would have liked to have helped his nephew start a better life there, he says.
Although Syria barely gets a mention in news bulletins in the West, the situation is still difficult there, the man says. "People have had enough of war and political chaos. The young people want to leave the country and make something of their lives," he says.
When asked who is responsible for the disaster, he says: "We are all responsible." For so many years, he says, there has been no solution for Syrians or for the many other people who hope to gain protection in Europe and risk their lives to attain it. "So many dead people, and the world watches on," he says.
Survivors behind barbed wire
About half an hour's drive north of Athens is Malakasa 2, a registration center for asylum-seekers financed by the EU and administered by Greece. Here, behind barbed wire and electronic turnstiles manned by security guards, is where most of the survivors of the accident are being housed. Behind a barrier tape, a few journalists are milling around, hoping to speak with them.
The registration procedure has been fast, according to the Greek Migration and Asylum Ministry. By Wednesday, 41 men had completed the formalities and were able to leave the camp, but none of them wanted to talk to the press, officials said.
"We have advised people not to speak with journalists," ministry official Manos Logothetis tells DW, though he adds that this was simply to protect the migrants and that they can, of course, decide for themselves.
But the situation at the camp creates a different impression. From the few brief conversations that DW was able to have with refugees, it emerges that they are worried their asylum cases could be negatively impacted if they have contact with journalists. One person also tells DW that he was not allowed to leave the camp.
Video accusations
It's possible that survivors of the disaster were also put under pressure earlier this week, after a video appeared on social media in which two men from Pakistan look into the camera through the fence and make serious allegations against the Greek coast guard. According to them, the refugees' boat sank after the coast guard tried to tow it. The video caused a major outcry.
A Syrian survivor from the camp, whom DW was able to contact by telephone with the aid of an interpreter, confirmed the account given by the two Pakistani men. "We were pulled by another ship and capsized," the man said in Kurdish. But he was unable to say what sort of ship it was.
The Greek coast guard has denied the accusations. According to its account of events, a coast guard vessel tried to attach a cable to the refugee boat, but people on board threw it into the water. The Naval Affairs Ministry, to which the coast guard answers, rejected DW's request for an interview.
More allegations
On June 18, British broadcaster BBC published an article that raised even more questions. Using data from a website that follows ships' movements, the report found that the ship with the migrants on board barely changed position in the seven hours before the catastrophe. But the Greek coast guard had stated that the vessel had been following a constant course toward Italy.
There is also the question as to why there is no video footage of the incident, even though the coast guard boat is equipped with cameras.
The Greek coast guard has previously faced accusations of deliberately disabling vessels carrying migrants in order to stop them from entering the European asylum system. Many such cases have been documented.
Athens nevertheless insists that it has adhered to the law, even in the case of last week's accident.
The fact that Greek state prosecutors have launched an investigation is not enough for Chloe Powers of the Border Violence Monitoring Network. For many years, this NGO has been documenting human rights violations at the EU's external borders in Greece. She says that all the investigations that Athens has carried out on its own until now have always concluded in favor of the Greek coast guard.
Independent monitoring mechanisms
Powers doesn't think the Greek government has shown much interest in casting light on the current case. She says Greek authorities are focusing on the nine Egyptians who were on the vessel and are currently in pre-trial detention on suspicion of being human traffickers. For Powers, this is no more than an attempt to criminalize migration in itself.
In fact, Powers feels, the disaster resulted mostly from an EU policy of deterrence toward asylum-seekers.
"What is needed, in terms of creating more transparency, safeguarding the fundamental rights and addressing systemic border violence, is truly independent monitoring mechanisms," she says. "Such mechanisms must include the involvement civil society actors, and mechanisms to trigger and follow through with independent investigations when such human rights violations are perpetrated by state actors."
This article was originally written in German.