ATHENS, Greece — Rights teams are demanding legal fees be introduced towards members of Greece’s coast guard over a lethal 2023 migrant shipwreck, after the nation’s ombudsman launched a report noting “clear indications” that officers had ignored the hazard posed by the boat that sank.
The Adriana, a massively overcrowded fishing trawler, had been heading from Libya to Italy with an estimated 500-750 folks on board when it sank in worldwide waters west of Pylos in western Greece in June 2023. Solely 104 folks survived, whereas 82 our bodies had been recovered. The remainder went down with the trawler in one of many deepest elements of the Mediterranean.
An unbiased investigation by Greece’s ombudsman into the shipwreck concluded this week that there have been “clear indications” that eight senior coast guard officers ought to face disciplinary motion for overlooking the hazards posed by the trawler.
The coast guard, which had been notified concerning the boat by Italian authorities, had been shadowing the vessel for hours because it sailed in worldwide waters however inside Greece’s space of accountability for search and rescue.
On the time, the coast guard stated the Adriana’s captain had insisted he didn’t need help and wished to proceed crusing to Italy. However a number of survivors stated passengers had been calling for assist repeatedly, and stated that the boat capsized throughout an try by the Greek coast guard to tow it.
The ombudsman stated Monday its report famous “a sequence of great and reproachable omissions within the search and rescue duties by senior officers of the Hellenic Coast Guard which represent clear indications” for establishing a case towards the officers for endangering the lives of the Adriana’s passengers.
The unbiased physique started its personal investigation in November 2023 after “the direct refusal of a disciplinary investigation by the Coast Guard,” it stated.
The Delivery and Island Coverage Ministry, below whose jurisdiction the coast guard lies, rejected the ombudsman’s report, accusing it of “making an attempt to shift the dialog from the legal smuggling networks to the members of the coast guard, who battle day and night time for the safety of the nation.”
It accused the report of regularly favoring variations of occasions that referred to as into query the coast guard’s actions “with out the slightest credible proof.”
“At a time when irregular migration is inflicting world concern, the federal government stays steadfastly dedicated to a strict however truthful coverage of guarding the nation’s borders,” the assertion stated.
Rights teams hailed the ombudsman’s report, and blasted the federal government’s response. The ministry’s assertion “is a monument of hypocrisy but in addition a confession it is going to proceed to cowl up the crime,” stated the Motion United In opposition to Racism and the Fascist Menace, or KEERFA, which referred to as for a protest rally outdoors a naval courtroom within the Greece’s major port metropolis of Piraeus Thursday night.
Attorneys representing a few of the survivors filed a request with the Piraeus naval courtroom in December in search of legal fees to be introduced towards members of the search and rescue operation.
“The transparency of administrative motion and the attribution of duties, the place relevant, for the lethal Pylos shipwreck is an elementary authorized demand, inextricably linked to the respect of the rule of legislation,” Ombudsman Andreas Pottakis stated in an announcement. “As is the thorough investigation of another incident related to the violation of the precise to life, well being and bodily integrity.”
