Did Greece let these people drown?

Dear reader,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece.

The Pylos shipwreck, which left 82 people dead while hundreds more are still missing, is increasingly making international headlines, all pointing to the same direction: that the Greek Coast Guard has something to hide - allegedly, the largest attempted pushback ever. 

ND government staffs ambulances with… army officers, firefighters, and garbage vehicle drivers. Untrained. And that’s official.

The dark side of Greek tourism was unveiled gloriously this week with an image of a struggling swimming waiter going viral.   

The Pylos shipwreck:

Many international reports cast doubt on the role of the Greek Coast Guard

One after the other major international media publish reports on the Pylos shipwreck. They all converge in casting doubt on the role of the Greek Coast Guard in the incident.

“Everyone Knew the Migrant Ship Was Doomed. No One Helped: Satellite imagery, sealed court documents, and interviews with survivors suggest that hundreds of deaths were preventable,” the New York Times reported (Abre numa nova janela) on 1st July.

According to the report, even though dozens of officials and coast guard crews monitored the ship, “the Greek government treated the situation like a law enforcement operation, not a rescue. Rather than send a navy hospital ship or rescue specialists, the authorities sent a team that included four masked, armed men from a coast guard special operations unit.”

They debunk the Greek authorities’ claim that migrants did not want to be rescued. They cited satellite imagery and tracking data they obtained and “show definitively that the Adriana [the vessel] was drifting in a loop for its last six and a half hours. And in sworn testimony, survivors described passengers on the ship’s upper decks calling for help and even trying to jump aboard a commercial tanker that had stopped to provide drinking water.”

In a tremendous visual investigation (Abre numa nova janela) of the Pylos shipwreck, the Washington Post also casts doubt on the main claims by Greek officials. Also, it suggests that the deadliest Mediterranean shipwreck in years was a preventable tragedy.

We shall not fail to mention the imposing Liberation front page titled: “Their grave (Abre numa nova janela),” referring to the shipwreck’s dead. The newspaper's report emphasizes the horrific conditions during the journey, including that some even had to drink their urine. In their testimonies, rescued refugees said several vessels bypassed them without help. The report claims that the Greek Coast Guard sent only one ship, although knowing more than 700 people were on board. And again: “The Greek authorities repeat that the refugees refused aid. All testimonies deconstruct this claim.”

An illustrative excerpt: “‘They told us ‘Follow us, we will take you to Italy’. That’s how we started following them, but now for long,’” survivors told Liberation.

“Then a strange mission started. The Coast Guard approached the vessel and ‘tied a rope to its front part. When they started towing us, the rope broke. They put a second one. They went to the left, then to the right, speeding up. We were screaming as the vessel started leaning. Then it capsized.’ It was around two after midnight.” 

El Pais, Der Spiegel, Tagesschau, The Times, Reuters, Le Monde, La Repubblica, and Corriere de la Sera are just some of the international media with extensive reports on the incident. 

Since 2014, circa 27,633 refugees have been missing (Abre numa nova janela) in the Mediterranean, according to IMO.