Leaked audio recordings have raised further questions about the official account of events leading up to the sinking of a migrant boat that left Libya and went down on June 14, 2023, with possibly up to 650 people aboard. According to BBC reports, survivors claimed that the Greek coastguards caused the overcrowded fishing vessel to capsize during a flawed rescue attempt and then pressured witnesses to remain silent. The Greek coastguard denies these allegations, stating that they did not intervene because the migrants were not in danger and wished to head to Italy, not Greece.
However, the recordings, obtained by the Greek website News247.gr, suggest that Greek rescue coordinators instructed the captain of the migrant boat to inform an approaching vessel that those on board did not want to go to Greece. The officials involved have not commented on the recordings but have stated that all relevant evidence has been forwarded to a Naval Court for investigation.
The incident is classified as one of the worst maritime disasters in the Mediterranean. Estimates suggest that the boat carried up to 750 migrants when it departed from Libya’s port of Tobruk a week earlier. While 82 bodies were recovered, the United Nations believes that an additional 500 people, including 100 women and children in the hold, may have died.
The recordings reveal disparate conversations involving differing instructions and requests from Greek Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC). In one conversation, officers instructed the boat’s captain on how to communicate with a supply vessel. In a later call, a different officer emphasizes the migrants’ supposed desire to reach Italy over Greece.
Notably, the Lucky Sailor, the “big red ship,” had provided supplies to the migrants and communicated with the coordination center. The conversations indicate that these supply efforts were concluded, and mobilization manipulation tactics were in play, pushing the narrative that the migrants did not want to stay in Greece.
The Greek coastguard responded to the content by denying the authenticity of the survivors’ accounts. Additionally, they claimed to have rescued over a quarter of a million migrants in distress at sea in the last decade and arrested over a thousand smugglers, emphasizing their internationally recognized humanitarian work.
BBC investigators quick to scrutinize the Greek authorities’ account post-sinking have found that the overcrowded fishing vessel remained stationary for at least seven hours before capsizing. Theofficial stance was that the boat was on a path to Italy and hence, did not require rescue.
In another twist, charges against nine Egyptian men accused of causing the shipwreck were dismissed by a Greek court because the vessel sank in international waters; six survivors had previously told BBC that the coastguard was responsible for the capsize and coerced them to incriminate the Egyptians. Lawyer for the Egyptians, Dimitris Choulis, alleged a cover-up and accused the Greek authorities of insulting the dead by falsifying the narrative about the migrants’ rescue intentions.
Human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have called for an international investigation into the disaster, expressing dissatisfaction with the integrity of the Greek investigation. Meanwhile, both the Greek Ombudsman and Naval Court are examining the case.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c17qe11wy52o
