Survivors of a shipwreck in which hundreds of migrants are believed to have died near Greece have spoken out about human traffickers in North Africa who literally stuffed them into a fishing trawler. They talked about the hellish conditions on deck and below, with no food and no water.
Some said the tragic end of their trip was hastened by the actions of the Greek Coast Guard. They told the judicial authorities about an attempt to tow an overloaded trawler that caused the ship to capsize in the early morning hours of June 14.
The disastrous towing attempt by the coast guard was described in six of the nine statements made by survivors to Greek judicial officials investigating the cause of the tragedy, according to evidence seen by Reuters.
One Syrian survivor said he and other migrants on board the Adriana, which broke down en route to Italy, shouted "Stop!" after a Greek coast guard vessel attached a rope to the bow of the trawler and began towing it as it picked up speed.
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The boat with the migrants tilted left and right and then capsized, he added.
Three more witnesses said they did not know what caused the Adriana to capsize. Reuters is not releasing the names of the nine survivors who gave statements, which have not been made public.
The statements of the six witnesses contradict the public statements of the Greek coast guard and the government, which state that there was no attempt to tow the ship and that it capsized when the coast guard was about 70 meters away.
The Maritime Ministry, which is responsible for the Coast Guard, told Reuters it could not comment on matters that are the subject of a confidential and ongoing investigation by prosecutors. Greek prosecutors are prohibited by law from commenting on issues live.
Nine survivors gave their statements on June 17 and 18 to investigators conducting a preliminary investigation into the disaster. A group of suspected human traffickers, arrested on June 15 on charges of manslaughter, migrant smuggling and causing a shipwreck, have been jailed pending a fuller investigation that could culminate in a trial. They deny guilt.
The dragging episode was also recounted by two other survivors interviewed separately by Reuters who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the Greek authorities.
One of them, who gave his name only as Mohammed, described the terrifying moments when the Adriana capsized, which he said came when the coastguard began towing the boat.
"They pulled us quickly and the boat overturned. It moved right, left, right and fell over. People started falling on each other," he said. "People were on top of each other, people were screaming, people were choking, they were choking each other. It was night and there were waves. It was terrible.”
On June 15, a Coast Guard spokesman, responding to local media reports that quoted some survivors as saying the trawler had been towed, publicly denied that a Coast Guard vessel had attached a line to the Adriana at any time.
A day later, the Coast Guard changed its account - saying its vessel attached a rope to the Adriana to help it get closer to the ship so they could communicate with the trawler. The Coast Guard denied that it later tried to tow the trawler, saying it kept its distance.
Nikos Spanos, a retired admiral in the Greek coast guard, told Reuters it was unlikely a coast guard vessel would attempt such a dangerous maneuver as towing an overloaded trawler.
“Their (Coast Guard's) objective was to make better contact to assist the vessel and assess the situation. That is my understanding. Because if they tried to drag him away or anything, it would have been too risky and this wouldn't have been the right way to do it.”
No help or no help
When the Adriana capsized and sank about seventy kilometers southwest of Pylos, in international waters within Greek search and rescue jurisdiction, she was carrying between 400 and 750 migrants, mostly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, according to the UN refugee agency.
A total of 104 survivors have been found, but rescuers say it is unlikely that anyone else will be found, dead or alive, in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean.
Court authorities were also provided with a Coast Guard logbook detailing two instances within two hours of a Coast Guard vessel approaching Adriana, according to the evidence.
At 23:40 p.m. on June 13, the vessel approached the trawler, which had a malfunctioning engine, and attached a rope to the boat to allow it to approach and speak to those on board to assess the situation and if they needed help, the log says .
The people on the ship shouted "No help", which can be interpreted as both "no help" and "don't help", as well as "Go Italy" and untied the rope, according to the diary in which it said that Adriana's engine was then restarted and headed west.
Then at 01:40, the Coast Guard vessel was instructed by the operations center to return to the trawler to inspect the condition of the vessel after the Adriana stopped moving.
A coast guard vessel approached within about 70 meters of Adriana and heard a lot of shouting, and in less than seven minutes the ship capsized, according to the log.
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Adriana set off from a beach in or near the Libyan city of Tobruk around June 10, according to survivors. Before they boarded, traders took away their belongings and threw away bottles of drinking water to make room for more people, survivor Mohamed told Reuters.
Each passenger had only 40 centimeters of space, the Syrian migrant told judicial authorities, which was entered into evidence.
All 11 survivors said they paid between $4.500 and $6.000 for the trip and were told by the smugglers that they would arrive in Italy in three days. The three survivors told authorities they were paying 50 to 200 euros ($55-220) extra for seats on the outer deck, which are considered safer.
They were among thousands of people trying to reach southern Europe this year by boat from North Africa. More than 50.000 "irregular" central Mediterranean border crossings, most of which start in Tunisia and Libya, were detected in the first five months of 2023, up 160 percent from a year ago, according to data from the EU's border agency.
A week after the tragedy near Greece, more than 30 migrants are feared dead after a dinghy capsized en route to Spain's Canary Islands.
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