Expiring records cause a Greek story of a deadly shipwreck

Expired audio instructions from Greek rescue coordinators have raised further doubt in the official version of Greece’s events in the hours before the migrant boat sinks with up to 650 people on board.

Adriana fell in the early hours of June 14, 2023 in international waters – but in the rescue zone of Greece – after leaving Libya days earlier.

Later survivors told the BBC that the coast markets had caused their overpopulated fishing boat to roll over in an attempt to withdraw and then forced witnesses to remain silentS

The Greek Coast Guard denied these allegations and maintained that it was not trying to save those aboard because they were not in danger and stated that they voluntarily wanted to reach Italy, not Greece.

But in a phone call, which now appears that an unnamed man talking from a Greek rescue coordination center is heard to instruct the migrant boat captain to tell an approaching ship that those on board do not want to reach Greece.

The coastal security did not comment on the audio, but said it had handed over all the available evidence to the Navy, which investigated the disaster.

The sinking was one of the worst disasters that are known to have happened in the Mediterranean.

It is believed that the boat carried up to 750 migrants when it left from the port of Tobruk in Libya nearly a week earlier.

Eighty -two bodies were restored, but the United Nations organization believes that an additional 500 people – including 100 women and children who were in the boat’s fee – may have died.

Audio records Received from Greek website News247.gr Discover telephone calls that include the Joint Rescue Coordination Center (JRCC) at the Piraeus port, near the capital Athens.

At the first call, at 18:50 local time (15:50 GMT) on June 13, an officer is heard, explaining to the man who piloted the boat migrants that he will soon approach a large red ship to give supplies and that he should explain that the migrants do not want to reach Greece.

Officer 1:

• The boat starting to you to give you fuel, water and food. And after an hour we send you a second boat, right?
• Tell the Big Red Ship captain “We don’t want to go Greece.” Okay?

The answers to the man who captain the migrant boat is not heard.

In the second call, 90 minutes later, at 22:10, at first glance, a different officer from the same coordination center speaks to the captain of the happy sailor (“Big Red Ship”).

Employee 2:

Ok, Captain, sorry, before I don’t hear you. I couldn’t understand what he told me. You told me that he had given them food, water, and they told you that they did not want to stay in Greece and wanted to go to Italy, they want nothing else?

Lucky Sailor Captain:

Yes, because I asked them from the megaphone “Greece or Italy?” And everyone there shouted Italy.

Employee 2:

Ahh, okay, everyone is screaming that they don’t want Greece and want Italy?

Lucky Sailor Captain:

Yes, yes, yes.

Employee 2:

Well

Lucky Sailor Captain:

They are all like crowded people, very overcrowded, full decks.

Employee 2:

Ok, Captain. So you have ended up deliveries?

Lucky Sailor Captain:

Yes, sir, yes.

Employee 2:

Captain, I want this, I want to write it in your diary. The bridge diary.

Lucky Sailor Captain:

Yes, well, we will write it.

Employee 2:

Okay?

Lucky Sailor Captain:

Yes

Employee 2:

I want you to write it about the fact that they do not want to stay in Greece and want to go to Italy. They do not want anything from Greece and want to go to Italy.

Lucky Sailor Captain:

Okay, yes, yes.

Another ship, the faithful warrior, also made some supplies to the migrants’ boat, but no further conversations appeared between his captain and the Greek authorities.

The Greek Coast Guard did not comment on the content of the conversations, but told the BBC that he had presented “all the materials he had in his possession, including the audio recordings and the logs of the events” of the prosecutor’s office of the sea court, which he was investigating.

It says she has saved more than a quarter of a million migrants in danger in the sea in the last decade and has arrested more than a thousand smugglers and that his humanitarian work has been recognized internationally.

Our BBC investigation in the immediate days after sinking disputes the explanation of the Greek authorities about the disaster.

The analysis of the movement of other ships in the area suggests that the overcrowded fishing vessel did not move at least seven hours before it was overcome.

Coast security has always insisted that during these hours the boat was on a course to Italy and did not need to save.

Last year, The Greek Court dumped charges against nine Egyptian men who were accused of causing the shipwreck.

Judges in the southern port city of Kalama have ruled that they have no jurisdiction to consider the case on the grounds that the ship is sinking into international waters.

The accusation showed that the defendants were pursued on evidence that was already contradictory to at least six survivors who told the BBC that the coast guard had caused their boat to revise and then pressed them to frame the Egyptians.

The human rights lawyer, Dimitris Chuulis, who represents some of the accused Egyptians, said he was not surprised by what these records.

“We know about the tactics of the coast guard or to press back or not to save people.”

He claims that there was a “attempt to cover up from day one.”

“They (Greek authorities) have told the story” they do not want to be saved “and that is why they have offended the memory of so many dead people,” he told the BBC.

Human Rights Groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said they had strong reserves about the integrity of the Greek investigation and called for an international investigation.

The Greek Ombudsman – an independent body removed from the government – is considering allegations.

The disaster is also considered by the Greek Naval Court.