exclusive
After the ship tragedy with more than 500 dead and missing off the Greek coast, international experts are calling for independent investigations. Survivors report suppressed evidence and manipulated reports by Greek investigators.
It is the most serious shipping disaster in years: more than 500 people lost their lives when a fishing trawler with around 750 refugees on board sank off the Greek coast in the early morning of June 14.
The Greek Coast Guard had at least 15 hours to rescue the people without taking any effective rescue action. What’s more, there are increasing indications that the coast guard could be responsible for the ship capsizing and that the Greek investigators are suppressing or manipulating evidence.
This is the result of research by an international cooperation of the ARD-Magazine monitor with Lighthouse Reports, Der Spiegel, El País, SIRAJ and Reporters United. Survivors and experts are calling for an independent investigation.
15 hours to rescue
The reconstruction of the events shows a catastrophe with announcement, because: There was a lot of time to prevent the accident.
Around 11 o’clock: The Greek coast guard receives information from the operations center in Rome about an overcrowded refugee boat off the Greek coast.
12:48 p.m.: Frontex EU border guards film the boat from the air. It’s completely overcrowded, people don’t wear life jackets. According to Frontex, the information is passed on to the Greek authorities.
1:50 p.m.: The Greek coast guard only sent a helicopter to the refugee boat almost three hours after the first report.
3:35 p.m.: The helicopter spots the boat. The Coast Guard is only now sending a ship to the scene of the accident. However, it is located in Chania (Crete) and has a long journey. The Coast Guard later commissioned two merchant ships to monitor the situation of the fishing trawler and to provide water and food.
18:35 and 21:34: Frontex offers the coast guard to monitor the ship from the air. According to Frontex, the inquiries were not answered.
10:40 p.m.: The coast guard ship from Crete arrives at the boat with the refugees, but stays “at a distance”. The refugee boat refused help, according to the Coast Guard. It was observed “inconspicuously”.
June 14, around 2:00 a.m.: The refugee boat sinks. People below deck – many women, children and young people – have no chance of escaping.
That’s 15 hours without a rescue operation being initiated. It should have been clear to everyone from the start that it was a sea rescue case, says the legal scholar Maximilian Pichl from the University of Kassel: “There were obviously no life jackets on board. This boat was obviously always in danger of becoming unseaworthy.” , he says.
Introduced towing to the disaster?
There were early statements that the accident was caused by the Coast Guard itself – by a towing maneuver. 16 survivors of different nationalities confirm this in interviews with the research cooperation, sometimes giving very detailed descriptions.
One survivor described what happened as follows: The Coast Guard threw over a blue rope, which was attached to the bow of the refugee boat. The coast guard ship was standing across the refugee boat. Then the coastguard drove up abruptly. The fishing cutter leaned to the left, people ran to the other side (port) of the cutter. Then the coast guard made a sharp right turn, whereupon the refugee boat tipped to the right and the bow got under water for the first time. A strong wave – caused by the Coast Guard’s turning maneuvers – finally capsized the boat.
The Greek Coast Guard vehemently denies having anything to do with the capsizing of the boat. She does not answer detailed questions, referring to the ongoing investigation.
Suppressed evidence, tampered with records?
Now Greek investigators should clarify what exactly happened. However, the survivors and experts are calling for an international independent investigation. The reason: the Greek authorities are not believed to be capable of objective investigations.
In fact, there are already indications that support this distrust: survivors report that their mobile phones were taken from them and that they have not received them back to this day, despite promises. According to one survivor, there are said to be 30 to 40 cell phones in total: “I filmed everything with my cell phone,” he assures. “The moment they attached the rope, the moment they pulled us, when people were drowning and the boat was swaying left and right.”
What’s more, another survivor reports that his testimony – for example about the coast guard’s rope on the bow of the fishing cutter and about the towing maneuver – was not found in the coast guard’s interrogation logs.
In addition, the research cooperation has several interrogation protocols of various survivors, which were translated by different people and still contain identically worded passages that exonerate the coast guard. For example, when survivors were asked whether they believed the crossing was dangerous, three minutes said almost exactly the same: “We were too many people for such a boat, the boat was old, there were no life jackets and the engine stopped constantly. That’s why it sank.” Identical passages can also be found in many other places in the minutes.
So are the Greek authorities suppressing and manipulating testimonies and evidence? The Foreign Ministry’s reply to these allegations is that detailed questions cannot be answered because of the ongoing investigation.
EU stands behind Greece
Mobile phones taken away, witness statements manipulated: the allegations weigh heavily. Maximilian Pichl doesn’t think it’s unreasonable, “because we’ve seen in the past that the Greek authorities are doing everything to ensure that such incidents are covered up.” He is therefore also calling on the EU Commission to take action and not leave the investigation to the prosecutors in Greece: “The European Union could, for example, initiate infringement proceedings against Greece, which could then also end up before the European Court of Justice.”
However, that currently seems rather unlikely: the EU Commission has backed the investigations by Greece. At the request of the research cooperation, it was said that they were in close contact with the Greek authorities and were following the development of the investigation. The coordination of rescue missions is the responsibility of the member states.
illegal methods
The Greek border protection authorities have already been convicted of illegal methods several times in the past: pushbacks on land and at sea, with which refugees were transported out of Greek waters and thereby endangered. In 2014, eleven people drowned in such an operation. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Greece for this last year.
Green MEP Erik Marquardt has sharply criticized Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The Commission is the “guardian of the EU treaties” – it must also ensure that human rights and the rule of law are respected. “If you have followed closely what has happened at the external borders in recent years and how the EU Commission has reacted to it,” says Marquardt, “then you simply have to state that the EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen was the guardian of injustice at the external borders”.