Amnesty International (AI) called on Friday for the immediate creation of safe and legal routes to Europe, following Tuesday’s shipwreck off the coast of Greece that killed at least 78 migrants, with hundreds still missing.
“It is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, also because it is perfectly preventable. We call for an urgent, independent and impartial investigation into the causes of the catastrophe and the provision of assistance and support to the survivors. There are many questions that need to be resolved. He responded,” said Adriana Tidona, a migration researcher at the human rights non-governmental organization (NGO).
The delay in the search and rescue operations, the causes of the sinking of the boat, which could carry between 600 and 700 people and the need for transparency, truth and justice for those who lost their lives, the survivors and their families continue to be questions raised . by AI.
“While the world waits for the survivors of this tragedy to have the opportunity to recount their experiences, Amnesty International is deeply concerned by the lack of clarity in the Greek authorities’ version of the incident,” the text indicates.
“The Greek coast guard reported that unspecified persons refused Greek assistance and intended to proceed to Italy. Hundreds of people were on board the ship and it is not possible for all of them to have been consulted. The Greek government has specific responsibilities over each person that it was on the ship, which was in difficulty,” continues AI.
Some survivors have already reported that the ship sank when the Greek coast guard tried to tow it out of its territorial waters.
“While an investigation is urgently needed to clarify the circumstances of the incident, this tragedy is the latest in a long string of shipwrecks in Greece and across Europe that were entirely preventable. Legal for people to come to Europe. This is the only way to avoid these tragedies that happen so often.
AI also asks Frontex, the European Coast and Border Guard Agency, to provide information and aerial images, which it considers essential to reconstruct the incident, and when its aerial surveillance device reported detecting the vessel on Tuesday morning.
When addressing the Greek authorities, the NGO also suggests that survivors and affected families be provided with the necessary psychological support, access to lines of communication with their relatives, safe shelter and a missing persons report.
According to survivors, the ship that left Tobrouk, Libya, on June 9, was carrying between 600 and 700 people, including about a hundred children, mostly Egyptian, Syrian and Pakistani citizens.
This shipwreck is already considered one of the most serious in recent years between Africa and Europe. It joins a series of dramas that since 2014, and in the Mediterranean Sea, have claimed the lives of more than 20,000 people, according to the World Organization for Migration (IOM).
Last April, the UN indicated that the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest since 2017: at least 441 lives were lost, a figure still far from reality according to the IOM.
These numbers do not cover the Atlantic Ocean, another maritime graveyard. According to estimates by the Spanish NGO Caminando Fronteras, between 2018 and 2022, 7,865 people from 31 countries, including 1,273 women and 383 children, died trying to reach the Canary Islands from West Africa.
Source: TSF
