Rights Groups Demand Justice for Migrant Shipwreck Off Greek Coast

Six months after a boat carrying 750 migrants and asylum-seekers capsized off the coast of Pylos, Greece, two international human rights organizations said Thursday that Greek authorities have failed to deliver justice and get to the bottom of how the shipwreck happened.

The boat sank on June 14, killing more than 600 people.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW) interviewed 21 of the 104 survivors as well as five relatives of victims who have not yet been found, representatives of the Hellenic Coast Guard, and international aid groups—and determined that Greek authorities failed to mobilize "appropriate resources for a rescue" as they "ignored or redirected" offers of help from the European Union as the boat approached Greece.

The fishing trawler was "severely overcrowded" with men, women, and children traveling from countries including Syria, Egypt, and Pakistan, when it set sail from Libya in June.

The boat was reportedly bound for Italy, but entered the Hellenic Coast Guard's search-and-rescue region in the Mediterranean Sea several days after leaving Libya. The marine authority was alerted to the Adriana's presence about 15 hours before it sank, but Amnesty and HRW found in its interviews that despite learning that the boat was in possible danger of sinking, the Coast Guard did not take action to avert disaster.

"At several points, the Coast Guard received information about conditions on the boat that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch believe should have been interpreted as indicators of distress as set out in E.U. law and that trigger the duty to rescue under E.U. and international law of the sea," reads the groups' report. "At 12:47 EEST, [E.U. border agency] Frontex told the Greek authorities that the boat was heavily overcrowded and no one was wearing life jackets."

An activist who was in touch with people on the boat also reported on social media that at least six people had died aboard the Adriana, and the captain of another nearby tanker told the Hellenic Coast Guard the fishing trawler was "rocking dangerously."

But the groups found that the Coast Guard sent a rescue vessel equipped with just 43 life jackets, eight life preserver rings, two inflatable life boats with room for 39 people, and one auxiliary inflatable raft—supplies that would have left hundreds of people on the boat without any way of getting to safety if they'd been used.

Frontex confirmed to the two groups that it twice offered aerial support to the Greek authorities, and that its calls went unanswered.

Eleven of the survivors told Amnesty and HRW that the Coast Guard "attached a rope to the Adriana and accelerated, causing the boat to veer in various directions before capsizing."

A survivor named Gamal told the groups that as the Greek boat approached the Adriana, he was sitting on the roof.

"I was so excited, I wanted to see those people who came to rescue us," he said. "When they tied the rope... they pushed our boat to the left very fast... They go left, the boat sinks left, then they go right, the ship sinks more on the right."

Greek officials have denied making a failed rescue attempt, and have claimed that people aboard the Adriana "rejected assistance"—an allegation which, if true, "does not relieve competent authorities on the scene of their duty to protect lives at sea."

The groups' report comes weeks after official investigations were opened by the Greek ombudsman, the European ombudsman, and Frontex's fundamental rights officer. Greece began its probe due to the Coast Guard's "refusal to conduct an internal disciplinary investigation," said Amnesty. Only 13 survivors have been summoned to make statements to the Naval Court, which opened its own investigation in June.

"Greece must ensure that survivors and families' of the hundreds who lost their lives can safely and effectively participate in proceedings to the highest degree possible and ensure that investigations are carried out in a timely manner, guaranteeing the completeness and integrity of evidence admitted," said Adriana Tidona, migration researcher at Amnesty International.

Amnesty pointed out that there have been "historic failures in Greece's investigations of shipwrecks involving people on the move," including in its probe of the sinking of a boat near Farmakonisi in 2014, in which 11 people were killed. The European Court of Human Rights condemned Greek authorities for "the shortcomings in its rescue efforts and in its subsequent investigations" into that disaster.

"Almost 10 years since the deadly Farmakonisi shipwreck," said Tidona, "the Greek authorities' response to the Pylos tragedy is a crucial test of their willingness to investigate human rights violations against racialized people on the move at the country's border."