Could the shipwreck have been avoided?

Could the tragedy of a shipwreck in international waters south of Greece have been avoided? Lies, confusion in statements, attempts to shift the blame on others. Who is really to blame for what happened?

Such questions are being asked by many after Frontex and the Greek Coast Guard released details and photographs showing permits were near an overloaded fishing vessel before it suddenly capsized and sank, sweeping dozens, if not hundreds, to the bottom of the sea. desperate passengers.

Photo taken by FRONTEX drone on Tuesday afternoon

Already when the ship was seen at noon on Tuesday, the ball of responsibility began to be thrown among themselves Frontex, Greece and Italy.

At first Nawal Soufia volunteer member of a non-governmental organization, informed Frontex and the Italian authorities, who then informed Athens of the existence of a fishing trawler full of migrants who want to enter Italy illegally.

A picture of the Greek Coast Guard, made “two hours before the fishing boat sank.”

Athens responded, attempted to contact the ship and offered assistance, which, according to the Greek Coast Guard, was denied.

The fishing boat was in international waters in the area where Greece is responsible for search and rescue (SAR).

Map of the division of the exclusive economic zone between Italy and Greece, ratified in 2020

Greek Coast Guard: forceful intervention could lead to shipwreck
Greek Coast Guard spokesman Nikolaos Alexios told several media outlets that any attempt to forcefully intervene on a ship carrying hundreds of migrants before it sank “could have resulted in a shipwreck.”

Alexios dismissed criticism over the Coast Guard’s decision not to intervene after her vessel approached a crowded fishing vessel and saw hundreds of people huddled on its deck. “If there was any violent intervention on a fishing boat full of people, we could cause a maritime accident. If there was an intervention, there would be a risk that we would cause sinking,” he stressed.

The place where the shipwreck happened

He denied allegations that the Coast Guard was trying to detain the fishing vessel, saying in an interview with Mega TV Live News and ANT TV that “a Greek commercial vessel involved in the rescue attempt threw ropes onto the vessel to provide passengers with water.”

He denied that the Coast Guard was just a lookout for a fishing boat. “There are no simple observers who save 104 brothers. We were there and tried to offer them help. They did not realize the danger. The weather was fine, they sailed normally.”

When asked if the shipwreck could have been avoided, he said that “ten minutes before the ship sank, her engine failed. If this had not happened, there might not have been movement [людей на борту]”.

“We weren’t dealing with guns or drug dealers. Violent interference on a ship with so many people” would have resulted in a shipwreck. We stayed close to them if they needed us to save people, which we did. The Italian Coast Guard notified us of the ship’s existence. We did what we had to do. The ship was discovered, commercial vessels approached it, they transferred supplies from one of them on board, and they then refused to help. Later, our own boat arrived, but on board the fishing boat they said they didn’t want to be rescued, they didn’t want to go to Greece, but to Italy. Seeing the situation, we did not leave … However, early in the morning the ship’s engine failed, people [на борту] panicked, began to rush from side to side, the ship lost its center of gravity and capsized.”

Greek Coast Guard boat

“The tragedy could have been avoided if Athens had taken one more step forward”
The tragedy off the coast of Pylos could have been avoided, says Christos Baxevanis, a former migration and asylum expert at the European Commission with a PhD in law and international relations,

Speaking to the daily ethnos.gr, Baksevanis said that Article 110 of maritime law provides that: “A warship that encounters a foreign slave trade ship on the high seas has the right to check the information. It has the right to observe. This could be done with our If a warship had been sent, having all the evidence that it was a slave ship, we might thus have avoided a shipwreck.”

He added that the next step could be taken by Athens, not limited to communication with a fishing vessel. The situation was greatly underestimated and the provisions of maritime law were not applied. In any case, the observation will reveal whether it was a slave trade or not. If it were not so, it could continue its course.”

Note, however, that the ship carried passengers for money, and these passengers were not slaves, boarding the ship on their own with the desire to move to Italy, like (illegal) migrants. However, now the captain of the fishing trawler and the crew members of the vessel, who (at least some of them) were the same potential migrants who were given the opportunity to sail on board the vessel for free for the work of crew members (this is a common practice on such voyages), incriminated slave trade, causing shipwreck and creating a criminal organization. 9 people have been arrested so far…

Tsipras v Minister for Climate Change

While visiting Kalamata, where the rescued passengers are being temporarily housed, lead opposition leader Alexis Tsipras tried to speak to Coast Guard officials when Acting Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas reportedly intervened protecting the coast security.

Turnas noted that the fishing boat refused to accept help, and Tsipras asked, “Who refused? The captain is probably also a slave trader, and the last thing a slave trader wants is to be arrested.”

Coast Guard officers stressed: “In international waters, assistance must be requested by the master of the ship. We cannot do this on our own because it follows from the SAR manual and the relevant convention. However, since we have seen that the ship is overloaded and there may be danger “We didn’t leave him. We engaged the drifter and kept the forces close to him.”

The frigate P. N. “KANARIS” in the port of Kalamata transports the bodies found near the site of the tragic shipwreck / Photo by NIKOLOPOULOS ANTONIS-EUROKINISSI

Tsipras continued to press on him and asked: “When there is a ship in international waters on which an offense has been committed, if it is, for example, engaged in drug trafficking, then the intervention occurs regardless of whether the captain agrees with the intervention of the authorities or not. Is it wrong? When so many hundreds of human lives are at risk and there are the obvious dimension of exploitation and illegality on the part of traffickers is an obvious criminal act – isn’t there a framework for that?”

The officers replied: “There is, that’s why we were next to them.” And Tsipras reacted: “That’s another thing you’re telling me now. It’s different from the first argument. The first argument was that if the captain says not to come, we don’t come. The captain is obviously a criminal. So what is he to you?” say? Don’t come, because if you come, I will go to jail, and you will arrest me.”

Then minister Turnas intervened: “I would not want us to undertake an effort to investigate a maritime accident because, in terms of role, our bodies are not authorized and do not have the legitimacy to do so at this stage, if you will allow.”

In passing, I note that no one understood why the Minister for Climate Change was there, and why he intervened in the discussion between the KU officers and Tsipras. Moreover, Turnas issued a press release about this dialogue.

From all the discussions and arguments about the shipwreck, one thing I understood:

FRONTEX and the Greek Coast Guard just watched as an overloaded fishing boat capsized and sank right in front of their eyes. It is quite possible that it is the presence of a warship nearby caused panic among the passengers, as according to the records of telephone conversations published on the volunteer’s page Nawal Soufi, a panic broke out on the ship after the engine was stopped. The passengers thought that they would be shot at and rushed to the side opposite from the warship. With so many people on board, the shifting mass of people caused the ship to capsize. And given that no one had life jackets (they are expensive and take up useful space), most of the passengers immediately went to the bottom. It is still unknown how many people were on board. And since the depth at the accident site is more than 4 kilometers, it is useless to search at the bottom of the body.

Now the captain and crew members of the fishing vessel will be appointed responsible, give them prison terms of 200 to 1000 years each. Traditionally, they will give a state lawyer who does not understand Arabic and an interpreter who will translate in such a way that the accused will never understand what they were convicted of. Do you think this will not happen? You are mistaken, this has already happened many times and will be repeated in the future. And no one will look for the guilty. What for?

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