{"id":2874,"date":"2018-07-03T15:28:20","date_gmt":"2018-07-03T12:28:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rsaegean.org\/?p=2874"},"modified":"2020-07-06T14:25:00","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T11:25:00","slug":"agathonisipressrelease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/agathonisipressrelease\/","title":{"rendered":"AGATHONISI TRAGEDY: INVESTIGATION MUST SHED LIGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING THE DEATHS OF REFUGEES LAST MARCH\u00a0\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/strong>PRO-ASYL<\/strong>\u00a0and Refugee Support Aegean<\/strong>\u00a0wish to express once more their profound concerns over the loss of sixteen\u00a0lives following the capsizing of a refugee boat near the island of\u00a0Agathonisi\u00a0<\/a>on 16 March 2018 and\u00a0evidence\u00a0pointing to\u00a0Greek\u00a0coastguard\u2019s failure\u00a0to conduct a prompt search\u00a0and rescue operation<\/strong>. Voice and text messages and testimonies\u00a0by survivors and relatives show\u00a0that the authorities had\u00a0been informed about the refugee boat being at risk shortly after it capsized.<\/p>\n

The two organizations urge the Greek authorities to ensure that the criminal and disciplinary\u00a0investigations into the possible liability of the Greek coastguard\u00a0are thorough and impartial and will ensure that any person responsible for the loss of lives is brought to justice.<\/p>\n

“It is important that the Greek authorities shed light into the circumstances of this tragedy and ensure the accountability of any one responsible for the failure to save lives<\/em>” said Karl Kopp, PRO-ASYL\u2019s Director of European Affairs.<\/p>\n

“Those who lost their lives are not just a number but someone\u2019s daughter, son, spouse or sibling.\u00a0 A thorough and impartial investigation and the swift\u00a0reunification\u00a0of the survivors and\u00a0victims\u2019\u00a0relatives with their families in Germany is the minimum that can be done in these tragic circumstances”<\/em>,\u00a0said\u00a0Natassa\u00a0Strahini, RSA lawyer.<\/p>\n

PRO-ASYL and Refugee Support Aegean have been providing legal and psycho-social support to the sole three survivors and relatives of those who perished since the early days of the tragedy.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

BACKGROUND<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

On 16 March 2018, a refugee boat sank near the Greek island of\u00a0Agathonisi. Sixteen persons perished including seven children and two babies and at least three are missing. Only three refugees survived and have lost all their loved ones. In their harrowing testimonies, the survivors say that they remained from early morning until before it got dark into the sea and no one came to rescue them. Meanwhile, one of the deceased refugee\u2019s relatives had notified the Greek authorities about the boat in distress in the morning of 16 March. The young refugee who was in Samos hotspot had called the authorities immediately after he received a message with the coordinates of the boat from his sister who was in the boat. Still, the Greek coastguard denies that the day of the incident was 16 March, and claims that it happened one day later (17 March).<\/p>\n

The three survivors and a relative have filed a criminal complaint\u00a0against the Greek coastguard\u00a0for failure to conduct a prompt search and rescue operation.\u00a0At the same time, a\u00a0preliminary criminal investigation into the circumstances of the shipwreck was initially conducted by the Kos Public Prosecutor and currently by the Samos Public Prosecutor. Meanwhile, the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Greek Coastguard has started a\u00a0disciplinary investigation on the\u00a0possible liability of the coastguard following an order by the Minister of Maritime Affairs and Island Policy.\u00a0 All investigations are on-going.<\/p>\n\n

Read the case file of Agathonisi shipwreck here:\u00a0https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/agathonisishipwreck-the-case-file\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PRO-ASYL\u00a0and Refugee Support Aegean\u00a0wish to express once more their profound concerns over the loss of sixteen\u00a0lives following the capsizing of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":2875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,6,5,254],"tags":[151,322],"class_list":{"0":"post-2874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-deathatborder","8":"category-press-releases","9":"category-publications","10":"category-violations-at-the-borders","11":"tag-151","12":"tag-shipwreck"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2874"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6558,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2874\/revisions\/6558"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rsaegean.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}