{"id":17598,"date":"2023-09-26T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/?p=17598"},"modified":"2023-09-25T16:56:22","modified_gmt":"2023-09-25T13:56:22","slug":"beyond-farmakonisi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/beyond-farmakonisi\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Farmakonisi: The responsibility of the Greek Coast Guard for human rights violations at sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Beyond Farmakonisi:<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The responsibility of the Greek Coast Guard for human rights violations at sea<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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The Council of Europe is receiving strong calls to scrutinise structural deficiencies in Greek Coast Guard operations and criminal investigations in its supervision of the execution of the Safi v. Greece<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/i>judgment of the European Court of Human Rights. This is the judgment which condemned Greece for breaching the right to life and the prohibition of torture in the Farmakonisi shipwreck on 20 January 2014.<\/p>

Over the past decade, RSA and PRO ASYL have represented refugees denouncing serious breaches of their human rights in the context of Coast Guard operations, including the right to life and the prohibition of torture, inhuman and degrading. At least four of those are pending before the European Court of Human Rights: Alkhatib v. Greece<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/i>(Pserimos case); Almukhlas v. Greece<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/i>(Symi case); Alnassar v. Greece <\/i>(Rhodes case); and F.M. v. Greece<\/i><\/span><\/a> <\/i>(Agathonisi case).<\/span><\/p>

Against this backdrop, we stress that the violations identified by the Court in the Farmakonisi case are not isolated, contrary to the view expressed<\/span><\/a> by the Greek government before the Council of Europe. They point to systemic deficiencies accounting for broader breaches of the right to life and the prohibition of torture in the general course of Coast Guard operations on border protection and rescue, as well as in the context of criminal investigation of complaints. These issues have re-emerged in the aftermath of the Pylos shipwreck<\/span><\/a> of 14 June 2023 that left 82 people dead and several hundred missing. The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has stressed<\/span><\/a> that \u201cthe shipwreck of 14 June is unfortunately not an isolated incident\u201d and urged for an effective investigation thereof.<\/span><\/p>

Today, we publish a note shared with the Council of Europe based on an indicative list of cases represented by RSA, concerning human rights breaches stemming from deficiencies and delays in rescue operations, interception operations during attempted push backs, treatment of shipwreck survivors and non-registration of missing persons.<\/p>

Drawing on this analysis<\/span> of cases legally represented by our organisations, we urge the Council of Europe to upgrade the examination status of the Safi <\/i>case from \u201cstandard\u201d to \u201cenhanced supervision\u201d. This would acknowledge that the human rights violations found in Safi <\/i>are systemic issues in the course of Coast Guard operations and investigations of ill-treatment, and would ensure more rigorous scrutiny of the country\u2019s compliance with its obligations.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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\u00a0<\/p>

RSA and PRO ASYL have recommended the Council of Europe to monitor the following elements in its supervision of the execution of the Safi <\/i>judgment regarding the case of the Farmakonisi shipwreck:<\/span><\/p>

Protecting the right to life<\/b><\/p>