Marian Heezen

1/2 It’s now clear that the shipwreck outside Pylos, Greece, is one of the largest sea tragedies in Europe in modern times, hundreds of people were trapped inside the hull of the fishing vessel when it capsized and went down, potentially killing over 600 people. Information from Greek authorities, organizations and journalists is poring out, some less accurate than others, it’s difficult to get a clear picture of what really happened in the fatal hours that led up to this tragedy. One thing seems on the other hand quite clear if comparing information from the coast guard, Greek authorities, organizations and survivors, things don’t add up, someone is deliberately lying to cover up the truth. One thing that has come to light is that multiple survivors claims that the Greek coast guard was towing the boat before it capsized, this has been categorically denied by the coast guard. Question is, if the fishing vessel was in fact towed, in what direction and for what purpose, rescue or pushback? The actions, or rather the lack of action by the Greek coast guard to provide assistance to people in distress at sea seems obvious in this case. The coast guard claims in their statement, that the people onboard denied to be rescued, and that they wanted to continue toward Italy. Information published by AlarmPhone, who was in direct contact with people onboard the boat, tells a different story, people begged to be rescued, their cry for help was ignored, eventually leading to their death. The lack of action by Greek authorities became more apparent when surveillance pictures from Frontex was published, showing a boat heavily overloaded, people packed as sardines outside, raising their hands toward the surveillance plane, waving to get their attention, they don’t appear as they don’t want help, quite the opposite. A former senior officer of the Greek Coast Guard told that “valuable time was lost” and confirmed that refusal of assistance would only make sense in the case of a legal, documented, seaworthy and flagged vessel. He said “This was the definition of a vessel in distress”. A decision by Greek authorities that this boat was not in distress, and not in a state that required immediate rescue, is mind blowing, on what grounds this decision was made we can only speculate, was this a wrong decision, most definitely. We could ask if this decision was made out of incompetence or in the name of Greek border protection and refuge policy. Greek authorities had the time and resources available to rescue this boat that carried as many as 750 people. The rescue operation wasn’t intended before the boat had capsized, as a result up toward 650 people was killed, should there be consequences, most definitely, question is will there be any at all? If this had been a cruise liner in distress and hundreds of rich people had drowned due to the lack of rescue efforts, every second, decision and movement would have been scrutinized, every stone would have been turned to get to the bottom of it. If there had been the slightest sign of wrongdoing, heads would have rolled. In this case, we fear that nobody will be held accountable, it will disappear into the night as a line in the ever growing statistics of dead people on Europe’s borders, in time forgotten. It’s important to look at the systematic pushback tactics implemented by Greek authorities the last three years, to understand their mindset. Hundreds of thousands of people have been illegally pushed back by their coast guard, stopping people from entering by all means necessary, even if this means killing people in the process. In the past sailboat’s and cargo vessels, packed with people, have been towed hundreds of miles before they have been left helplessly drifting by the Greek coast guard. It’s not unlike that this was the plan this fatal night as well, only this time, it went terribly wrong, and now they are trying their best to cover it up, putting blame everywhere else than themselves.