A child in a wheelchair and an elderly woman with serious health issues were forced to travel on the open car-deck of ferries on Thassos-Kavala route amid conditions of the heatwave that has Greece in its grip.
A child in a wheelchair and his caregiver were seen to have been forced to travel on a ferry’s open-air car deck in the middle of a heatwave. There was apparently no ramp or an elevator for a wheelchair so that the two could reach the air-conditioned passengers’ lounge or the covered deck. The incident was photographed on the ferry on the route between the island of Thassos and the port of Keramoti by Kavala in northern Greece.
45 minutes on the hot metal deck… No words!
A post with the two pictures was posted on social media by another passenger caused not only uproar but also reportedly forced the Shipping Ministry to take action: that is to increase inspections on open-type passengers ferries, emphasizing the obligation of operators to guarantee safe and equal access for passengers with disabilities and their companions.
However, this incident was not the only one on the ferries to/from Thassos last week, as a serious ill elderly woman was also pictured sitting on a plastic chair in the car deck.
Incident July 22 from Thassos to Kavala
“Once more, I was embarrassed to be a human,” the woman who made the incident public, commented on her FB post. “A person in a wheelchair, with his companion, traveled with the cars because apparently there is no way to get the wheelchair into the passenger compartment. For years now, the same story: Elderly people, people with mobility problems cannot travel like people because there is no provision for them. Why? Who in charge can answer? “, she wrote characteristically.
The ferry’s captain and crew had apparently failed to make any other provisions to ensure the passengers’ safety and comfort, and have been issued a formal warning by the Kavala Port Authority for the oversight.
And yet the incident recorded on Tuesday afternoon, July 22, was not the only one concerning people with mobility issues or serious illnesses traveling on the ferries from/to Thassos.
Incident July 21, from Kavala to Thassos
A day earlier, on July 21, when a woman with heart and kidney disease, was returning exhausted from a hospital stay in Thessaloniki and was about to undergo open-heart surgery, was forced to travel on another ferry on the garage deck, sitting in a plastic chair in unbearable heat.
Her daughter posted on Facebook that despite calls for the use of a wheelchair lift or the provision of a suitable chair, there was no response from the crew.
“The crew was NEITHER TRAINED NOR INTERESTED. No one knew how the mechanism for people with disabilities worked or simply did not bother. […] My mother was humiliated, and with her we were humiliated, by people who have nothing to do with the concept of respect and humanity,” she wrote.
Invisible in Greece
These two incidents raise serious questions about the travel conditions of people with disabilities on the ferries to/from Thassos and also highlight the perennial problem of the lack of infrastructure and indifference to accessibility issues.
In Greece 2025, people with disabilities are still invisible both for the state and the private sector.
Those 2 are better off anyway being outside. When it comes time to get out of the boat you will not have to wait a half hour to get off in that sea of unorganized humanity. MUCH better off, why complain? are you joking?
there is always one …
I’ve travelled on that ferry, once on the busiest day of the year. The journey takes 35 minutes but we had to queue for 4 hours to get on in the baking heat. I would say that being on the car deck is not necessarily the worst part of the journey.