close
close
hsuses

Greek Coast Guard: Opposition calls for investigation after BBC report on migrant deaths

Theo

video subtitles, “It is clearly illegal” – thoughtless comment from a former coast guard about migrants

  • Author, Nikos Papanikolaou and Phelan Chatterjee
  • Role, BBC News

Greece’s largest opposition party is calling for an investigation into a BBC report It found that, according to witnesses, the coast guard was responsible for the deaths of dozens of migrants within three years.

Nine migrants are said to have been deliberately thrown into the water.

Syriza’s immigration policy chief said: “We demand a thorough investigation, we demand answers, we demand accountability, and the reason we are doing this is this:

“We care about every human life and we cannot get used to the loss of human life.”

Giorgos Psychogios told the BBC that his centre-left party had been demanding accountability for incidents involving the coast guard for years, following numerous reports from international institutions and organisations.

He accused the government of calling his party “anti-Greek,” “Erdogan agent,” and “provocateur” because of these issues.

A government spokesman insisted that the BBC’s allegations were unproven, but stressed that every complaint would be investigated and conclusions drawn.

The coast guard “saves dozens of lives every day,” Pavlos Marinakis told reporters, adding that it was “wrong to target them.”

“Reality … has consistently refuted these claims for too many years.

“And indeed, we have seen far too often in the past that the Greeks were behind attempts to defame the country.”

A BBC crew showed a former senior Greek coast guard officer footage previously published by the New York Times of 12 people being loaded onto a Greek coast guard boat and then abandoned on a dinghy. As he rose from his chair, with his microphone still on, he said it was “obviously illegal” and “an international crime.”

The Greek government has long been accused of forcing people back from their place of origin to Turkey, which is illegal under international law.

But this is the first time that the BBC has calculated the number of incidents in which deaths allegedly occurred as a result of the actions of the Greek Coast Guard.

In the 15 incidents analyzed – dated May 2020–23 – 43 people were killed. The first sources were mainly local media, NGOs and the Turkish Coast Guard.

In June 2023, an overloaded trawler capsizes in front of a Greek coast guard patrol boat. More than 600 men, women and children die in the water. But who is responsible and is the coast guard to blame?

Human Rights Watch called the BBC’s findings a “particularly horrifying addition to the mounting and credible allegations against the Greek authorities.”

The organization called for a full investigation to “bring justice to the victims and break the cycle of violence and impunity at Greece’s borders.”

Meanwhile, the social democratic opposition party Pasok said the BBC report had raised “legitimate interest and concern about possible illegal actions” by the coast guard.

“We are waiting for the authorities’ answers,” said MP Athanasios Glavinas. “Respect for human life and its values ​​is non-negotiable.”

The Greek Refugee Council told the BBC that pushbacks were a “de facto policy of Greece” and joined calls on the government and the EU to launch an investigation.

Related Posts