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UNHCR is dismayed to have learned of a boat cap-sizing off the coast of Greece in the early hours of this morning, which has left a woman and a child dead and 10 other people missing, among them infants and children.According to accounts from some of the 16 survivors and Greek Coast Guard, the vessel was carrying 26 Afghans and two Syrians. It was intercepted in the southern Aegean Sea shortly after midnight following a mechanical breakdown and while apparently en route from Turkey to Greece. The boat, with all 28 passengers still aboard, was being towed by a Coast Guard vessel when it capsized. The survivors, now on the island of Leros, told UNHCR they were being towed in the direction of Turkey at the time of the accident."UNHCR is urging the authorities to investigate this incident and how lives were lost on a boat that was under tow," said Laurens Jolles, UNHCR's Southern Europe Regional Representative. "In addition survivors need to be quickly moved to the mainland so that their needs can be better looked after."Tuesday's incident is the first of its kind in 2014, and the latest in a string of recent boat disasters in the Mediterranean involving people fleeing by sea towards Europe. More than 360 people died on October 3rd 2013 in a capsizing off of Italy's Lampedusa. Several other deadly incidents were reported over the following weeks.
[T]he testimonies survivors provided to the UNHCR according to a press release issued by the organization, resemble the testimonies Amnesty International has previously collected on push-back operations of the Greek coastguard – the practice of summarily turning back a group of migrants across the border towards Turkey. UNHCR press release reports that the survivors alleged their boat was being towed by the Greek coastguard with great speed towards Turkey when it capsized. The Greek coastguard, however, denied these allegations in a subsequent statement this afternoon and reiterated that the boat carrying the refugees and migrants was towed towards the island of Farmakonisi, not back towards Turkey.Push-back operations carried out by Greece deny people the right to explain their individual circumstances and raise any protection or other concerns. As such, they are in breach of Greece's international obligations and EU law.Amnesty International has continuously called on the Greek authorities to stop these push-back operations not only because they are completely unlawful but because they put people’s lives at risk as a result of the way they are being carried out.Testimonies collected by Amnesty and published in a previous report point to a blatant disregard for human life shown by the Greek coastguard during push-back operations carried out in the Aegean Sea. Interviewees who described being returned to Turkey from the Aegean said that their inflatable boats were rammed, knifed, or nearly capsized while they were being towed or circled by a Greek coastguard boat. They said their boats’ engines were disabled and their oars removed, then they were just left in the middle of the sea. Life-endangering practices were also reported by people caught after crossing Greece’s land border with Turkey along the river Evros.Amnesty International calls on the Greek authorities to initiate a thorough, transparent and independent investigation into the incident of 20 January 2014 off the Coast of Farmakonisi Island; bring to light the circumstances which led to loss of life and prosecute those who are responsible.The organization further calls the Greek government to investigate all allegations of collective expulsions (push-backs) and ill-treatment on Greece’s land border with Turkey and in the Aegean and prosecute officials involved.The recent loss of life on the Aegean is yet again another reminder of the dangerous journeys migrants and refugees have to endure to reach Europe. Since August 2012, at least 136 refugees, the majority of whom were Syrian and Afghan, lost their lives in at least twelve known incidents attempting to reach Greece by boat from Turkey. EU and member states should ensure effective search and rescue at sea by focusing their efforts into saving lives rather than protecting borders.
Following the tragic incident near Farkakonisi island on Sunday 20 January, which cost the lives of 11 Afghan refugees, the 15 survivors arrived in the port of Pireaus on the morning of Thursday 23 January, whereupon they were received by a number of organizations that showed their solidarity to the survivors, including the UNHCR, the Greek Forum for Refugees and other networks and organizations that support immigrants and refugees. There was wide media coverage. One of the survivors, testified that there were 28 people on board the ship. Upon finding themselves approximately 100 meters from the shore of the Farmakonisi island, they were warned by a Greek coastal guard boat not to approach the island. The coastal guard then tied the boat with their own, and started to drag it back towards the Turkish coast, at great speed. Suddenly the part of the ship to which the Greek coastal guard’s ship was tied, broke off from the ship carrying the refugees, causing great damage to the boat and thus allowing water to flood the boat. The boat was old and frail, and began sinking. The Greek coastal guard boat then turned back, but the refugees attempted to board the Greek coastal guard ship in order to save themselves. The coastal guard beat them in order to keep them out of their ship, forcing them to remain inside their own sinking vessel. Only 16 of those persons managed to board the coastal guard’s boat. One of the survivors, from Syria, tried saving a small child by extending him a stick from the safety of the coastal guard boat, but was brutally prevented by a member of the coastal guard, who beat the man assisting the child, thus resulting in the drowning of the child. The same witness claims that no attempt whatsoever was made by the coastal guard to save the drowning individuals. The testimonies of all the survivors describe the same sequence of events. Two of the bodies (one woman and one small child) were discovered on the Turkish coast. Of the other persons who died in the incident, two were women and seven were small children.
Three Afghans who survived the sinking of a migrant boat have described in vivid terms how Greek authorities tried to forcibly tow them back to Turkey.They said Saturday that the attempt caused their boat to flood and that the Coast Guard did nothing to help those, mostly women and children, who had fallen into the sea and hit at those migrants who attempted to save them.Speaking to the press and about a hundred leftist supporters through an interpreter, Abdol Sabur Azizi, Fada Mohammad Ahmadi and Ehsanula Safi said Greek authorities' behavior throughout their ordeal verged on brutality.They claimed survivors never made statements thanking authorities for their rescue, contradicting Greek officials. Some survivors say they lost relatives in the incident, in which 12 are presumed to have perished.
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