Tag: greece

• 2 years after pylos

  2 years since the Pylos state crime: we make our tears a sea of anger.

  

  14:17 CEST on June 13, 2023: Alarm Phone received the first call from the Adriana, an overcrowded boat in distress carrying about 750 people that departed from Libya towards Europe. In the hours that followed, our volunteers alerted competent authorities and attempted several times to reach the people in distress, some times successfully and others not. It became evident that the boat was unstable and that the people needed rescue urgently.

  For us, it was also evident that the past actions of the Hellenic Coast Guard, which we witnessed multiple times in that region, could have lethal consequences for such an overloaded boat. To our great horror, the crime we feared could happen, took place in the early morning hours of June 14, 2023. The boat capsized. Only 104 of the estimated 750 people on board survived. More than 600 people were killed that night.

  In a blatant attempt to absolve themselves of any responsibility, the Hellenic Coast Guard – with the support of the Greek government – staged false accusations against 9 Egyptian survivors for ‘smuggling’ and causing the shipwreck. But similar to other recent state crimes in Greece, it was due to the tireless work of the survivors, the families of the disappeared, lawyers, journalists and civil society that the false narrative crumbled.

  In December 2024, investigative journalists revealed that Egyptian authorities had informed their Greek counterparts that the nine survivors of the Pylos shipwreck were not members of the smuggling network. Yet, the nine Egyptian men stayed behind bars for a year.

  In February 2025, the Greek account of the deadly shipwreck was challenged by leaked phone recordings, in which an “unnamed man speaking from inside a Greek rescue coordination centre is heard instructing the captain of the migrant boat to tell an approaching ship that those onboard do not want to reach Greece”.

  In May 2025, the lawyers representing the survivors and victims of the shipwreck were informed of the criminal prosecution and referral to main investigation on felony charges against 17 members of the Hellenic Coast Guard, including senior officers of its leadership.

  On the 28th of February 2025, two years since another state crime that claimed 57 lives when two trains crashed in Tempi, Greece, the families of the Pylos victims sent a message of solidarity to the families of the Tempi victims:

  A SALUTATION TO THE RELATIVES OF THE VICTIMS OF TEMPI FOR THE RALLIES ON 28 FEBRUARY

  Dear relatives of the 57 people, students and workers who were taken from you when the trains collided in Greece on 28 February, WE ARE WITH YOU!

  We share the pain in our souls and hearts because our loved ones on the boat Adriana in Pylos were also lost. Our tears have not stopped for two years now. We feel you as our own people.

  We are mothers, brothers and sisters, children of the 750 migrants who put their dreams of a better life on a ship that sank in the Mediterranean. The mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters of the victims from Pakistan, Syria, Egypt, Palestine join you in mourning on 28 February.

  We also join our voices with you for justice, to punish the murderers. For us to finally get an answer: Where are our people, who are those lying to us?

  Don’t all people’s lives count? Don’t the lives of migrants count? Our condolences to all of you. And to the family of Mia Mohammad Idris, the migrant worker from Bangladesh who died in the Tempi train. All over the planet they are spreading fear, hatred. Our governments want us to work as slaves in Europe and America but they persecute us at the borders, lock us up in camps and the far right that is rising is murdering people in the streets.

  That’s why we will also stand against injustice, wars, racism worldwide and on March 22 we will mobilize everywhere. Thank you for your support. We share the same pain.

  Let’s make our tears a sea of anger at the injustice that is killing our children.

  Strength and vindication for your struggle.

  Two years later, we are still full of grief and let our tears join the sea of anger at the injustice that continues to kill people. Alarm Phone stands together with a growing number of people who call for justice and are mobilising throughout Greece and beyond to commemorate those who forcibly disappeared on board the Adriana.

  We do not forget! We do not forgive!

  United in solidarity – Freedom of movement and equal rights for all!

  First published by Alarm Phone:
  https://alarmphone.org/en/2025/06/14/2-years-since-the-pylos-state-crime/

  CommemorAction

  Jun 14, 2025

  Uncategorized

  greece, refugees

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• The Pylos Massacre, one year on

  Exactly one year ago, at 16:53h on 13 June 2023, the Alarmphone alerted the Hellenic Coast Guard to a boat in distress, near the coast of Pylos in Greece. There were over 700 people on board the heavily overcrowded boat called ‘Adriana’. They could have all been rescued. They could still be alive today. But most of them were not rescued. Most of them are no longer alive.

  The email to the authorities ended with the words “They are urgently asking for help”. This call remained unanswered. The Adriana sank and most of its passengers drowned in front of the eyes of the Hellenic Coast Guard, roughly 10 hours after we had sent out the alert. Over 600 people are estimated to have died. This shipwreck was not an accident. It was a massacre, it was a state crime.

  Today, one year later, we commemorate all those who lost their lives and we fight for the ones still alive. We mourn the dead and continue to struggle for freedom of movement for all! We condemn the criminalization of nine survivors who were imprisoned by the Greek authorities and released only a few weeks ago. And we support the demands of relatives for appropriate assistance in the search of the bodies of their loved ones. This is essential for them to find some peace after experiencing this horror.

  

  With several hundreds of people who disappeared when the Adriana sank, there are thousands in many different countries who are searching for them, seeking answers and justice. But the European border regime that killed them is not giving any answers. We have stayed in contact with some of the relatives of people who were disappeared on 14 June 2023. We are trying to support them in their search and in dealing with their loss. We also try to draw attention to the ongoing mass murders committed by the European Union at the external borders. Some of the relatives told us that until today, their biggest need is support in the search for the bodies – a need which has been ignored by the Greek authorities. Behind every person who loses their life while migrating, there is a story. There are brothers, a neighbour, sisters, a comrade, a colleague, parents and friends, looking for them, mourning their deaths, trying to keep their loved ones alive in memory.

  These countless deaths are preventable. But unfortunately, they are a logical consequence of the brutal border regime established by Greece and the EU in the past years. Pushbacks, brutal attacks at sea and increasing criminalization against border crossers force people to board unseaworthy boats in high numbers. They often try to remain hidden as for people on the move, encountering the Hellenic Coast Guard, the Hellenic Police or the Hellenic Border Guards often means violence and suffering. Innumerable cases of pushbacks in the Eastern Mediterranean, executed or coordinated by the Greek or other border guards, have been documented. People on the move know that they need to travel as far as they can to increase their chances to avoid pushbacks or pushbacks by proxy.

  While Greece continues to direct blame at survivors and intensifies the criminalisation of projects like the Aegean Boat Report, also the violence at Greek borders continues. Just last week, Alarm Phone was in contact with several different groups in the Evros region who reported brutal attacks. Also pushbacks in the Aegean Sea continue to happen systematically – they became less visible after the Pylos massacre, but they never stopped.

  While survivors and relatives fight for justice and against criminalization, the real crimes continue to happen: The war against migration and people on the move. As Alarm Phone, we continue to fight against death at sea, against border violence and against a global regime of migration apartheid. We are fighting for a world without borders and freedom of movement for all!

  We are not alone. Survivors, relatives, lawyers and activists joined forces to collectively fight for justice. In the reconstruction of the Adriana shipwreck, survivors testify what really happened: they explain in detail the production of a disaster by the Greek authorities, who were subsequently trying hard to disappear evidence. This reconstruction serves as a powerful counter-narrative to the account of the Hellenic Coast Guard, which is still too often believed in the media and public. Also, forty survivors have filed a criminal complaint against all responsible parties before the Naval Court in Piraeus. They are supported by a powerful alliance of human rights groups and lawyers, who seek accountability for the deadly actions and inactions of the Greek authorities. Moreover, there was a strong legal and solidarity campaign in support of and together with the nine survivors, who were cynically accused as smugglers and of having caused the disaster. The charges against the nine Egyptians were dropped in May.

  We’ll never forgive, we’ll never forget: We build a collective memory from our pain in our struggle for a society based on solidarity and the freedom for all to make their own decisions about their lives.

  United in Solidarity – Freedom of movement and equal rights for all!

  CommemorAction

  Jun 13, 2024

  Uncategorized

  border-crimes, greece, news, shipwreck

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