The European Union’s administrative watchdog called Wednesday for a change to Europe’s search and rescue rules following an inquiry into last year’s sinking of a rusty fishing boat, the Adriana, carrying hundreds of migrants while traveling from Libya to Italy.
European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly said current rules prevent the EU’s border and coast guard agency Frontex from fulfilling its obligations to protect the rights of migrants or act independently of national authorities when boats they use are in distress.
Up to 750 people were believed to be crammed aboard the Adriana when it sank off Greece last June. Just 104 people were rescued — mostly migrants from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt — and 82 bodies were found. Human rights groups accused Greek authorities of failing to properly investigate. Italian authorities were also involved in the incident.
“Why did reports of overcrowding, an apparent lack of life vests, children on board and possible fatalities fail to trigger timely rescue efforts that could have saved hundreds of lives?” O’Reilly asked.
Did the Greek coast guard ignore reports of the boat sinking, or did they ignore the boat until they received reports of it sinking?
The latter wouldn’t surprise me in the context of how unpopular migrants are in Europe but the former would be heartless even by nativists standards.
From another article with a little more context:
When 600 people die on a summer’s night in the Mediterranean, their journey known of, or witnessed for many hours and at various times by an EU agency, the maritime authorities of two EU countries, by civil society activists and by multiple private ships and boats – a journey and a drowning effectively in plain sight – there is one obvious question: “How did that happen?”
…
Our inquiry found that for most of the period between the sighting of the Adriana and its capsizing, Frontex had to stand ineffectually by, due to the absence of authorisation by the Greek authorities to do more. The agency is legally obliged to follow the orders and directions of the coordinating national authority.
According to documents inspected by my office, repeated calls offering assistance from the Warsaw-based agency [Frontex] to the Greek rescue and coordination centre went unanswered. A Frontex drone, on offer to assist with the Adriana, was diverted by the Greek authorities to another incident.
When Frontex was finally allowed to return to the site of the Adriana, the boat had capsized, with many hundreds of people already dead.
It sounds like Frontex was quite concerned about the condition of the boat but
Frontex had chosen not to exercise one autonomous power – to issue a mayday relay – on the grounds that the Adriana was not in “immediate danger” when initially sighted.
The Greek authorities then effectively prevented Frontex from continuing to monitor the boat, with the effect of delaying the rescue mission after the boat did sink, although no one was watching as the boat sank and refusing to respond. If this was intentional, then I assume it violated EU laws in a serious way, but Greece does have some plausible deniability.
The Greek ombudsman and the Greek naval court are separately investigating the actions of the coastguard, the latter having declined to initiate an internal investigation.
It doesn’t seem like Greece is particularly eager to resolve that ambiguity.
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