Accountability adrift in
Greek waters
Addressing human rights violations in Greek Coast Guard border management operations
In the last three years, the European Court of Human Rights has condemned Greece four times for breach of the human right to life in border management operations of the Coast Guard: Safi v. Greece (Farmakonisi, 2014); Alkhatib v. Greece (Pserimos, 2014); Almukhlas v. Greece (Symi, 2015); and F.M. v. Greece (Agathonisi, 2018).
These cases, supported by RSA and PRO ASYL and pending execution at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, share notable similarities. They concern arrivals of unseaworthy boats transporting newly arriving refugees, Coast Guard operations without due regard to human life and resulting in death by drowning (Safi, F.M.) or shootings (Alkhatib, Almukhlas), and ineffective investigations by the Greek criminal justice system.
Our latest report to the Committee of Ministers argues that the breaches of the human right to life found by the Strasbourg Court in these cases are owed to complex and systemic deficiencies that persist to date, from the 2023 Pylos shipwreck to more recent incidents. These issues are mainly reflected in:
- Flaws in the planning and implementation of search and rescue operations:
- Lack of diligence in Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (EKSED) communications, ranging from the absence of interpretation services to allow communication with non-Greek speakers to unrecorded EKSED contacts with vessels
- Lack of clarity in the classification of distress phases and delays in launch of search and rescue operations
- Deployment of Coast Guard assets inadequate for search and rescue
- Lack of digital recording of Coast Guard vessel courses
- Endangerment of life due to “extremely dangerous” practices, many linked to Greece’s systematic practice of unlawful push backs also established by the Strasbourg Court:
- Arbitrary use of firearms in border management operations
- Abandonment of people on inflatable rafts adrift at sea
- Destruction of boat engines or confiscation of fuel
- Towing of boats by rope
- Wave-making and manoeuvres leading to collision with boats
- Ineffectiveness of criminal investigations by the Naval Court Prosecutor:
- Lack of independence of investigating officers, where the initial interrogation into incidents involving the Coast Guard is conducted by Coast Guard officers
- Deficient examination of witnesses and failure to examine suspects
- Chronic gaps and delays in inspections, expertise and forensic reports
- Absence or disappearance of digital evidence
- Circular statements denying the existence of illegal practices
