Migration: one year after the Pylos boat disaster
Twelve months after the boat tragedy off the south-west coast of Greece many questions remain unanswered. What is clear is that on 14 June 2023 an overloaded fishing trawler capsized on its way from Libya to Italy. According to the UN it was carrying more than 750 migrants. Some 104 were rescued and 82 bodies were recovered. Serious accusations were levelled against the Greek coast guard in the aftermath. The press takes stock.
Europe lost its moral compass at sea
Nikos I. Spanos, retired admiral of the Greek Coast Guard, emphasises the contradiction between pressure from Brussels and compliance with the law on the website Militaire:
“This is not the first time that the Greek Coast Guard has been accused of endangering the lives of asylum seekers at sea. ... In 2020, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen thanked Greece for acting as a 'protective shield' for the EU. She pledged solidarity and emphasised that maintaining 'order' at Greece's external border, which is also the EU's external border, was a top priority. ... According to international maritime law and EU law, Greece had the right and the duty to intervene, to help and to rescue the people on board, regardless of their status.”
EU policy only makes fleeing more dangerous
Columnist Lefteris Charalampopoulos writes on the news website In:
“A year after it happened there still hasn't been a full investigation into the circumstances of the shipwreck. Crucial information has not been made public, nor do we know whether or to what extent it has been investigated. ... But the key question is also: what have we done in the year since the accident to prevent such a tragedy from happening again? Very little, I'm afraid. Europe is sticking to a policy of repelling migrants which instead of stemming the influx is just making the journey to Europe ever more dangerous.”