On 13 June 2023 around 2pm, 750 migrants called for help off the coast of Pylos. According to Alarm Phone by 5pm the Greek authorities, including Hellenic Coast Guard, FRONTEX and UNHCR, were alerted. A nearby merchant vessel was informed of the distressed ship, but stated it could only intervene under the authority of the Hellenic Coast Guard. Despite this, the merchant vessel provided water to the people in distress. Some time after midnight, the group called Alarm Phone for the last time.
A so-called rescue has been taking place since yesterday morning. 100 people have been rescued. But at least 79 dead bodies have been found, and according to what we know more than 580 people are missing.
The Hellenic Coast Guard claims that the people in distress refused assistance, saying they were trying to go to Italy. Even if this is true (and that is a big if) we understand perfectly the reasons why, because the chances are that the Hellenic Coast Guard would have thrown them back into the sea anyway. By the time the Coast Guard arrived, people had been asking for help for hours, claiming that the ship was not moving, that the captain had left on a small boat, and that the ship was too overcrowded. It is clear however that this shipwreck follows the pattern of Hellenic Coast Guard deliberately neglecting the duty to rescue migrant boats, waiting in standoffs until it is too late. This is the same Hellenic Coast Guard that is perpetrating pushbacks on a daily basis. These shipwrecks are not accidents, they are murders. They are a consequence of the border regime, of the pushbacks themselves, which force migrants to take more dangerous routes in order to avoid being kidnapped in Greece.
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- Let’s be precise and clear. We do not want any other justifications, excuses, any more performed indignation. The European Union and the Greek State have a plan. It’s violent, it’s brutal, and it will not change without action.
- While New Democracy candidates parade our island in clean white shirts, distributing promises to the local population, they leave behind them only pain, violence and grief.
- “Tough but fair.” The Hellenic Coast Guard protects the interests of Europe. Its policies are deadly and unacknowledged. Yet they are a logical necessity of the European desire to control migration, and to defend the wealth they plunder.
- Who is complicit in these crimes? While the Greek media continues to report that the Hellenic Coast Guard provided unconditional help, we know that this is not true now, as it was not true for several other so-called rescue operations in the past.
- Last week the body of a young man, whose father had been searching for him for over a month, reached our island. One among other bodies that will never appear, among bodies that will continue to reach us from time to time.
Next time you swim in the sea, know that you bathe in a graveyard. How much death does it take to break the silence?