Questions remain unanswered still on Thursday about how the collision between a Greek Coast Guard vessel and a boat carrying migrants happened off the island of Chios late on Tuesday night, taking the lives of 15 men, women and children and injuring another 25.
Three of the injured remain in the ICU of the General hospital of Chios, some with minor injuries have been already released. other underwent surgeries and the fetuses of two pregnant women had to be surgically removed as they had died.
Among the injured are 11 children.
Arrest of human trafficker
One of the survivors, a 31-year-old Moroccan who remains hospitalized due to injuries, was arrested on Wednesday, as other survivors hinted at him as the boat operator and trafficker.
The man has been arrested and referred to the prosecutor on charges of facilitation, illegal entry into Greek territory, disobedience and causing a shipwreck.
The prosecutor visited him at the hospital and raised the charges.
Official version: Trafficker caused the collision
While the government’s narrative is that the boat operator is to blame for everything as he drove the boat into the coast guard vessel, the leadership of the Maritime Ministry and of the Coast Guard ordered an internal investigation to determine the causes of the collision.
Too bad that the camera on the Coast Guard vessel with four officers onboard was not activated and there is no footage to have captured the incident.
“Even if it had been activated, it would not have recorded the incident as these are cameras that record far away and not at close range,” is the official version.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis adopted also the same version saying that “the captain of the Coast Guard vessel did not deem the activation of the came as necessary.”
All patrol boats have a camera installed as the authorities are required to record their every operation. Of course, once again, and according to information from the Coast Guard Headquarters, it had not been activated by the crew members in order to film the incident.
Migration Minister knows the investigation results before it started
According to daily efsyn.gr, already before the internal investigation was concluded, Migration and Asylum Minister, Thanos Plevris, defending as always the tough deterrent strategy and congratulated the Coast Guard “for saving the people who were found at sea and who guard the borders of our homeland” as he told the Greek Parliament during a session earlier on Thursday.
Plevris stressed that the 24 were rescued by the Greek authorities and not by “professional humanitarians” and added that “the criminals are the traffickers who put 40 people in an eight-meter boat and when the Coast Guard asked them to stop, they went to leave and hit their boat”. In addition the populist minister argued in his keynote speech on the bill about “Legal Migration” that “any MPs who did not vote for the provisions on NGOs are on the side of the traffickers.”
So far, investigation focuses on the testimonies of the rescued as well as on the findings of the autopsies performed on the bodies of the 15 dead.
“The Guard vessel passed over us…”
The survivors said that:
💥”There was no sound signal from the Greek port vessel.”
💥”Suddenly in the darkness, in the middle of the night and while we were moving at very low speeds, we saw a huge searchlight falling on our boat.”
💥And then the phrase they use is “the Port Guard passed over us”!
💥”The boat capsized and we fell into the sea…”
Survivors contradict the official statement of the Greek Coast Guard as stated below:
“The pilot of the boat did not comply with the light and sound signals of the coat guard vessel, instead he reversed course instead and the boat hit the right side of the coast guard vessel.”
Speaking to television channels and other media, nursing personnel said that the survivors’ injuries were not caused by “drowning” but they were severe ones like the ones from heavy car accidents or crash.
“It was as if many car accidents happened at the same time…so many children…” said one nurse as reported on Alpha TV.
According to one scenario circulating since Wednesday afternoon:
“the boar operator crashed on the coast guard vessel that was heavier and higher than the migrants’ boat with the effect that a lot of passengers came under the vessel’s reefs and were killed on the spot or injured.”
Forensic investigation concluded
The forensic investigation on the death of 15 migrants has been completed, state-run news agency amna.gr reported on Thursday evening.
, and DNA samples have been received for purposes of identifying the bodies, it was announced on Thursday.
A team of four medical examiners and three coroners arrived in Chios on Wednesday, following a decision by the Justice Minister, based on a special crisis-management protocol.
DNA samples have been received for the purpose of identifying the bodies, it was announced, however, the forensic findings have not be made known to public, so far.
Number of missing passengers remains unknown
The total number of passengers on board of the migrants’ boat remains unknown and so it the possibility that there are still missing persons. missing persons as the number of people on board the boat remains unknown. According to the Coast Guard, five patrol boats and helicopters are participating in the Search And Rescue operation, however, with no positive results, so far.
According to some media reports, a father has declared his 12-year-old son as “missing”, he could not find his beloved boy neither among the survivors, nor among the dead.
See also KTG first report: 15 dead, 25 injured when migrants’ boat collide with Greek Coast Guard vessel.
The mere fact that the Coast Guard did not record their dubious activities with official recording equipment is a serious breach of duty and possibly a criminal offence. It gives succour to the continued and multiple claims that Greece, at the behest of Far Right members of its government, is engaging in illegal pushbacks of migrant boats.
Further evidence of the Greek government’s intent to break the law and endanger the lives of irregular migrants and asylum seekers can be found in the new draft migration law — which is clearly in breach of international law, European law and the Greek Constitution. We hope that the Parliament’s legal oversight committee will reject the draft law as incompatible with Greece’s legal obligations. However, given the criminal behaviour of many western governments these days, who knows?