On 14 June 2023, a fishing boat smuggling migrants sank in international waters in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Pylos, Messenia, Greece. The boat, which left Tobruk, Libya, on 10 June, carried an estimated 400 to 750 migrants.[6][7] The search and rescue effort by Greek authorities rescued 104 survivors including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans, and Palestinians,[1] and recovered 82 bodies, with hundreds more missing and presumed dead.
Background
Libya's ongoing crisis, alongside instability in neighboring countries, has allowed a large people-smuggling business to develop, making Libya a hub for moving migrants and refugees across the Mediterranean into Europe.[8] The 2022–2023 Pakistani economic crisis hampered Pakistan's ability to import essential food products, and forced Pakistani people to seek opportunities abroad.[9]
The Northern Africa to Italy sea route for migrants and refugees seeking to get to Europe has been declared the deadliest on Earth by the International Organization for Migration, which has recorded 21,000 deaths since 2014.[8] Human smugglers crowd migrants into unseaworthy vessels, often in locked holds for days-long journeys. They head for Italy, across the sea from Libya, as it is closer to Western Europe than Greece.[8]
Such maritime smuggling routes into Europe have seen an increasing number of fatal incidents: 3,800 people died in 2022 while traversing migrant and refugee routes from the Middle East and North Africa, of whom 3,789 died on sea-based routes in and around the region.[10] On 26 February 2023, at least 94 people died when a wooden boat from İzmir, Turkey, sank off Cutro in Southern Italy in the deadliest Mediterranean maritime incident of 2023 up to that point.[8]
In Memory: Migrants of the Fishboat Andriana
The boat, named the Andriana,[11] had departed from Tobruk, a city in Cyrenaica, Libya, south of the Greek island of Crete, on 10 June 2023.[11] The vessel carried an excessive number of people, well above its capacity.[12] According to Alarm Phone, a European rescue-support charity who claimed to have received a distress call from the vessel, up to 750 people were aboard, though it was not clear if that was the same boat that sank.[8][13] The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that around 400 were aboard. Ioannis Zafiropoulos, the deputy mayor of the Greek port city of Kalamata, stated that there were over 500.[14] The ship was a fishing boat,[15] and was estimated to be around 20 to 30 metres (66 to 98 ft) long.[16] The Andriana was destined for Italy.[17]
On 13 June, the Italian coast guard alerted Greek authorities and the European Union (EU) border protection agency, Frontex, of an oncoming vessel in distress.[8][13] In particular, the Italians informed the Greeks of the peculiar movements of the vessel.[18] The Greek coast guard said that Frontex aircraft and two merchant ships detected the vessel approaching north at high speeds, prompting the dispatch of more aircraft and vessels. Offers for aid were made to the ship but were refused according to the Greek coast guard.[19]
In the afternoon, one of the merchant ships approached the Andriana and offered it assistance; the passengers refused it. Another merchant ship later did the same and received the same response. A Greek coast guard patrol approached the deck of the vessel in the evening, where they confirmed the presence of a large number of migrants.[8] The migrants again refused any aid, stating that they wished to continue to Italy. In all three instances, the migrants stated that they wanted food and water, which the Greek patrol ship and a Maltese-flagged merchant ship provided.[13] The Greek patrol later accompanied the vessel.[8] Survivors of the shipwreck have stated that a Greek Coast Guard vessel caused the fishing boat to capsize by attempting to tow it.[20][21]
At around 1:40 a.m. (EEST) on 14 June, the Greek Coast Guard learned that the Andriana's engine had broken down.[8] After receiving a plea for aid, Coast Guard officers then approached the ship. They stated that they then "saw the boat take a right turn, then a sharp left, and then another right so big that it caused the vessel to capsize." Around 10 to 15 minutes later, the Andriana sank, sending its passengers into the waves of the Ionian Sea.[18] The ship sank around 50 miles (80 km) off the coast of Pylos, Messenia, in the Peloponnese,[12] in an area around 13,000 to 17,000 feet (4,000 to 5,200 m) deep.[17][18] The Greek coast guard reported that no one on board was wearing a life jacket.[12]
According to investigations done by the BBC and News 24/7, contradicting the Greek coast guard's account of the incident, the boat had not moved for at least seven hours before sinking.[22][23]
Search and rescue
Immediately following the sinking, the Greek Coast Guard and the military initiated a massive search and rescue operation.[18] The operation was complicated by strong winds in the area.[12] Survivors were transferred to Kalamata.[19] After rescuing 104 survivors, the Greek authorities stated that they expected to find no more, leaving hundreds still missing.[1][12] The Mayan Queen IV, a luxury superyacht, was notified by the coast guard to transport 100 of the 104 rescued survivors, as well as recovered bodies, to Kalamata.[22][24] The survivors, the majority of whom are men,[15] reported that the smugglers kept the women and children locked in the hold.[15] Based on survivor accounts, it is believed that up to 100 children were being held at the time of the sinking.[4] According to leaked testimonies told by survivors, Pakistanis were allegedly forced below deck, with other nationalities allowed on the top deck, where they had a far greater chance of surviving a capsize.[25]
Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency has stated that 12 of the survivors are Pakistani, and that 209 are amongst those still missing (181 from Pakistan and 28 from Pakistan-administered Kashmir).[5] Earlier reports claimed that there were 298 Pakistanis missing, of which 135 were from Kashmir.[26][27]
Victims
At least 82 passengers of the Andriana have been confirmed dead, making it the deadliest shipwreck of 2023 in the Mediterranean sea.[12] Greek police said they were working on the assumption that as many as 500 people were missing.[4]
Aftermath
.jpg)
The Greek Coast Guard released aerial pictures showing the boat's overladen upper and lower decks hours before it sank.[28] The Coast Guard claimed in official statements that the boat and its passengers had refused assistance because its destination was Italy, and so its boats had hung back.[4][28] Alarm Phone, a support network for rescue operations, was contacted by people onboard late on Tuesday. The passengers were saying that the captain had abandoned the ship.[28] No one onboard is thought to have been wearing a life jacket.[4]
Under the previous conservative government, Greek authorities took a hard stance on migration, raising border controls,[28] and often turning away boats laden with migrants and refugees.[29] Many left-wing organizations, trade unions, anti-racist collectives and parties, including the Communist Party of Greece, called for protests on 15 June in solidarity with the refugees and against pushbacks and border fences intended to control migration.[30] That evening, thousands of protesters converged in Athens and Thessaloniki to demonstrate against EU migration policies. Some protestors in Athens threw petrol bombs at police and were teargassed.[31] Protesters in Kalamata demonstrated near the migrant facilities, with one banner reading: "Crocodile tears! No to the EU's pact on migration".[31]
Judicial proceedings
By the evening of 16 June, the Greek authorities had arrested nine suspects believed to have been responsible for the people-smuggling operation. The men, all of Egyptian descent, are due to appear before a local magistrate, with the public prosecutor likely to press charges, including mass murder.[4] Additionally, Pakistani authorities arrested 10 suspected traffickers.[32] On 19 June 2023, nine Egyptian men aged between 20 and 40, accused of human smuggling and operating the boat, appeared in a Greek court in Kalamata and pleaded not guilty.[33][34]
Response
Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras said he had visited Kalamata port and spoken with survivors who said they had "called for help". He asked: "What sort of protocol does not call for the rescue... of an overloaded boat about to sink?" Tsipras said European migration policy "turns the Mediterranean, our seas, into watery graves".[4] The caretaker administration in Athens announced three days of national mourning,[28] and Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited some of the survivors and conveyed her condolences.[19]
Due to the large death toll of Pakistanis, Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif declared a day of mourning on 19 June 2023.[26] The Pakistani newspaper Dawn editorialized that "racist laws, anti-migration policies", which aim to prevent migrants from entering safely and legally, are to blame for the deaths of thousands of refugees.[35]
See also
- 2013 Lampedusa migrant shipwreck
- 2023 Calabria migrant boat disaster
- List of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea
- List of shipwrecks in 2023
- List of maritime disasters in the 21st century
References
Στο μεταξύ οι έρευνες που συνεχίστηκαν αδιάκοπα όλο το προηγούμενο 24ωρο ήταν άκαρπες και ο επίσημος απολογισμός παραμένει 78 νεκροί και 104 διασωθέντες.[In the meantime, the searches that continued uninterrupted throughout the previous 24 hours were fruitless and the official tally remains 78 dead and 104 rescued.]
- Ali, Furkan (19 June 2023). "Drowning in despair: Racist laws, anti-migration policies to blame for deaths of thousands of refugees". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 21 June 2023.
Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 2023 | |
|---|---|
| Shipwrecks |
|
| Other incidents |
|
2024
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen