At least 82 people died and several hundred disappeared during the sinking, which occurred on June 14.
What really happened off the Peloponnese? The Greek Supreme Court has ordered an investigation to determine the causes of the sinking of a migrant boat on June 14, which left at least 82 dead and several hundred missing.
Nine Egyptians, suspected of being smugglers, were charged with “illegal trafficking” in human beings and remanded in custody on Tuesday 20 June. But as investigations continue, doubts are emerging about the rescue operation and statements from the Greek Coast Guard. Franceinfo explains why these are now singled out.
Because their intervention is considered too slow
According to the reconstruction of the day preceding the sinking carried out by The world, the Italian-Moroccan activist Nawal Soufi announced the presence in the Mediterranean of the boat on his social networks at 7:30 a.m., and published his coordinates 45 minutes later. At 9:45 a.m., the European border surveillance agency Frontex transmitted images and information on the boat to Greece. However, the Greek coastguard helicopter only took off at 10:50 a.m. from the island of Lesbos, more than three hours after the report.
The Greek authorities claim to have “immediately (…) informed” commercial vessels in the area, and have them “invited to change course” to bring water and food to the trawler. But always according to The worldthe first boat alerted, the Lucky Sailorclaims to have received the instructions about an hour and a half after the time indicated by the authorities.
The head of migration advocacy at Médecins sans frontières, Jérôme Tubiana, especially castigates the immobility of the Frontex agency to franceinfo: “It’s really shocking to hear that Frontex flew over the boat and there was no intervention because the boat refused any help. An overloaded boat is a boat in distress, so there is no there is no question of his condition or his ability to continue his journey.”
Because their comments on passenger distress are disputed
The Greek coastguards, who communicated with the trawler by satellite telephone, assure that the boat wished, for hours, to continue its way towards Italy and rejected the assistance of Greece. The two vessels redirected for trawler resupply, the Lucky Sailor and the Faithfutl-Warriorassured to have faced the reluctance of the passengers, who refused their help, reports The world. However, the Alarm Phone, an emergency call platform for migrants in difficulty at sea, explains having received a call saying that the boat was in distress, according to the BBC.
The BBC’s verification service has retrieved data from the MarineTraffic site, which allows live monitoring of maritime traffic. They show that the two commercial vessels diverted their course to the same place at sea, two hours apart, suggesting that the trawler was not in motion and needed assistance. A version confirmed by The Guardianwhich analyzed other navigation data collected by the MariTrace system.
Because the rescue method used queries
The investigation should also shed light on how the Greek Coast Guard finally came to the aid of the ship. According The world, several survivors told the Greek press that the rescuers tried twice to tow their boat using a rope. On the second attempt, “the boat rolled from left to right, then sank”said a survivor.
Experts interviewed by The world consider that the use of cables could have affected the stability of a ship already overloaded with passengers. “A boat like this is ready to capsize at any time. The absolute urgency is to send buoys, life jackets, (…) no [la] tow”explains to the daily François Thomas, president of the NGO SOS Méditerranée.
The spokesperson for the Greek government admitted on June 16 that a “rope had been used for a few minutes by the coastguards to approach” of the ship. Shortly after 11 p.m., the boat reportedly “took a bank to the right, then a steep bank to the left, then another bank to the right so large that it caused the fishing boat to capsize”. In a series of televised interventions, the head of the Greek coast guard assured him that his services “were absolutely not responsible for the sinking”reports Le Figaro.