Greece indirectly admitted that … is responsible for the shipwreck with illegal immigrants

Responsible for the zone of the Ionian Sea between Italy and Libya, the Italians made the Greeks responsible for the shipwreck.

Frontex has issued a statement on the tragic Pylos shipwreck, blaming the tragedy (up to 750 illegal migrants are believed to have died) on the Greek authorities, while the Italian media blamed Greece for the incident.

The truth is that Greece made a serious “blunder” by declaring “national mourning” for three days. Thus, she indirectly, but clearly admits that … she herself is responsible for the deaths of so many people!

The European Border and Coast Guard Agency puts all the blame on Greece, saying: “All questions should be directed to the Greek Rescue Coordination Centre,” as stated in Frontex statement:

“We are deeply shocked by the tragic events unfolding off the coast of Greece. The SAR operation, coordinated by the Greek authorities, continues. A Frontex surveillance aircraft spotted the vessel on Tuesday 13 June at 09:47 UTC and immediately informed the competent Greek and Italian authorities. All questions should be directed to the Greek Rescue Coordination Centre. In addition, due to another sighting of a ship in distress south of Crete, a SAR operation was launched and 80 migrants were rescued and transported safely to Kalou Limenes.”

The Italian media, in turn, blamed Greece and Frontex. Of course, we are judged by the Italians, who are also responsible for similar incidents in the past. It is clear from yesterday’s tragedy that the issue of illegal immigration cannot be resolved where it all begins, namely on the coast of Africa. In other words, illegal immigrants should be prevented from sailing off the coast of Africa or, if they succeed, should be returned immediately.

The Italians have created an impenetrable “wall” off their coast, and nothing can penetrate through it, except in very rare cases. It is for this reason that a ship with illegal immigrants passed near the coast of Greece. The Italians have developed a dense early warning system, with which they “catch” boats with illegal migrants off the Italian coast and return them to where they started, that is, to Libya.

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

Edition pronews asks the question: what is the Ionian naval command based in Patras doing, and, of course, the Greek General Staff itself? Although it is well known that the Ionian region is a priority security issue for the country, given the fact that Turkish submarines move freely from Vlora to Albania through the Ionian region, and Turkish frigates from Libya, north of Libya, to the Ionian border.

However, the General Staff did not take any measures to increase surveillance in the Ionian Sea. If he did, then what happened would not have happened. Once a ship entered the Greek EEZ, it would be removed. It should be noted that Greece has signed a maritime delimitation agreement with Italy, so the responsibility for search and rescue in its EEZ lies with Greece.

The responsibility of the General Staff is great, it had to create a proper surveillance system in advance, first of all – to detect Turkish submarines in the Ionian Sea, which are “snooping” back and forth. Turkish frigates do the same. The Erieye EMB-145 AEW&C electronic reconnaissance aircraft was supposed to constantly patrol there.

And now the Italian media are writing extensive articles about the unimaginable tragedy, analyzing the actions of both Frontex and the Greek authorities when they first noticed the “floating cemetery”. They comment on the failure of the two authorities to intervene when they saw the situation, as well as the reasons why they could “not ask for help”, as claimed by both the Greek Coast Guard and Frontex.

Recall that the corresponding Coast Guard press release states that “several consecutive phone calls from the operations department to the ship with an offer of assistance received a negative response.”

“A satellite phone user on board the ship, who spoke English, replied that the ship was not in danger, that they did not need help other than food and water, and that they wanted to continue on to Italy,” one of the press points said. release of the Greek Coast Guard. Reports point out that the refusal to help illegal immigrants is due to a change in Greece’s tactics on the issue of migration.

La Repubblica, in one of its articles on the shipwreck, speaks of a “tangle of guilt” between Frontex, Athens and Rome, claiming that this is a “played out task”: Frontex’s aircraft detects the ship, informs the competent authorities, but everyone expects it to be as good as possible more likely to cross the Italian border and fall under someone else’s responsibility, justifying that “no one asked for help.”

Corriere “sees” the Greek authorities responsible, referring to the complaint of the NGO “Alarm Phone”, which was in constant contact with illegal immigrants aboard the fateful ship. The NGO said it had warned the Greek authorities many hours earlier of the dangerous condition of the boat, “From the very first hours of the tragedy, the Greek Coast Guard began to justify the lack of assistance, arguing that people in distress do not want to be rescued in Greece. We we ask ourselves: why are there people at sea who are so afraid of meeting the Greek forces? This is due to the systematic practice of repatriation of the Greek authorities.

The Italian news agency ANSA reports that the shipwreck could turn out to be one of the worst massacres in the Mediterranean. “They knew perfectly well that it was an overcrowded and unsuitable ship, but they did not start a rescue operation. The Greek Coast Guard began to justify the refusal of the rescue, claiming that people in danger did not want to be rescued by Greece,” said one of the non-governmental organizations, and the Italian agency commented that critical watches had been lost.

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