Greek coast guard charged for boot disaster in which hundreds of migrants died

Seventeen members of the Greek Coast Guard must answer for the Navy Court in Greece for their alleged involvement in one of the deadliest boot disasters with migrants, in which hundreds of people died. Reuters news agency reports this on Friday.

The disaster took place in June 2023, when a heavily overloaded fishing boat with around 750 migrants tried to make the crossing from the Libyan port city of Tobroek to Italy. The ship capsized off the coast of the Greek town of Pylos.

Many people on board were stuck under the deck when the ship sank. Only 104 people survived the disaster. The migrants mainly came from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt.

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In the weeks after sinking the boat, more and more witness statements and investigations into the possible role of the Greek Coast Guard. The ship was followed by the coast guard for about fifteen hours before it sank. No rescue attempt was made because, according to the coast guard, the ship was sailing safely, with a « constant speed », and was on a « constant course » towards Italy. The passengers were not in danger, the coast guard said.

According to rescued people, things went wrong when the coast guard tried to pull the ship ahead with a tow rope, after which it capsized. One published in December 2023 joint report Van Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch states that the Coast Guard did not respond sufficiently to emergency callers.

The Greek authorities deny any form of guilt to date. They emphasize that Greece has taken care of hundreds of thousands of migrants during the refugee crisis.

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