(C) Common Dreams
This story was originally published by Common Dreams and is unaltered.
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Stop Blaming Migrants for Deaths at Sea [1]
['Moira Lavelle', 'Vedat Yeler', 'Tyler Austin Harper', 'Jared Abbott', 'Fred Deveaux', 'Cori Bush', 'Shawn Fain', 'Tiara Sahar Ataii', 'Nathan Akehurst']
Date: 2024-09
On May 21, nine men stood in a courtroom in Kalamata Greece, charged with criminal responsibility for the deaths of over six hundred people in the shipwreck of the Adriana off the coast of Pylos last summer. Almost a year before, the nine men had been taken directly from the waters of the Mediterranean to a police interrogation — and then to prison. They were held for eleven months in pretrial detention. Several told the court they were bewildered as to why they were there. “I don’t know why I am imprisoned,” said one of the defendants on the stand. “I want my justice, to see my family, and to be acquitted. A relative of mine who was on the ship died. I would have liked [to travel in] better conditions, but this was the only way to go to another country.” The Pylos nine were arrested in an attempt to shift the blame for six hundred deaths from the Greek government to a handful of traumatized people. “I don’t know why I’m here, they took me from the hospital and took me to prison,” said another. “I have not done what I’m accused of.” The nine were charged with facilitating illegal entry into Greece, illegal entry into Greece, being members of a criminal organization, and causing the deadly shipwreck. These nine, like thousands of others trying to reach Europe, were set up to take the blame for smuggling networks moving desperate people over increasingly more treacherous routes. They were charged to obfuscate the fact that these routes are dangerous because European governments have decided and designed them to be so. They were arrested in an attempt to shift the blame for six hundred deaths from the Greek government to a handful of traumatized people.
Dubious Official Story In interviews with the press, the Pylos nine have maintained they were simply passengers on the doomed fishing trawler, refugees trying to reach Europe to seek a better life. They insist that they had no part in smuggling the 750 some passengers from Libya, and that they had no part in overturning the ship. Rather, they have all stated that the Greek coast guard arrived and tugged the boat, causing it to capsize. The dozens of other survivors of the shipwreck who have spoken to journalists or researchers also tell the same story — that the Greek coast guard tugged the overpacked vessel, causing it to heave right, left, and then right again before flipping completely. The coastguard then retreated and made no moves to rescue any of the hundreds of people in the water for about twenty minutes as they drowned. Greek authorities have rejected responsibility for the fatal capsizing and sinking of the Adriana from the day of the shipwreck, instead blaming the nine Egyptians, who were among the 104 survivors. Regarding the towing of the overloaded fishing trawler with a rope that allegedly caused its capsizing, the Greek coast guard denied it had attached a rope to the vessel but later admitted that it had done so at one point to evaluate the condition of the vessel and the people on board. A naval court investigation into the role of the coast guard has thus far made little progress. Lawyers and advocates say the nine were scapegoated for the coast guard’s crimes, and that the case file was based on scanty and dubious evidence. On May 21, after a series of objections from the defense, all the charges were dropped for all nine, as the fishing trawler had never entered Greek waters, and the Greek court had no jurisdiction. Some of the nine broke out in tears as they went to hug family members who had come to see the trial. “One day these people had survived a shipwreck, the next they were imprisoned for very serious criminal offenses. Today all of them are going to be released and they’re going to enjoy their freedom for the first time,” said Alexandros Georgoulis, a lawyer on the defense team, outside the Kalamata courthouse. “These people, like thousands of people in Greece, have been criminalized,” said Georgoulis. “Under the current law it doesn’t matter if you had any intent, it doesn’t matter if you profit from the activity, if you touch the helm of the boat then you are considered a smuggler. It doesn’t make any sense, it’s an absurd law.”
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[1] Url:
https://jacobin.com/2024/05/pylos-migrant-trial-greece
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