Many dead in two separate boat disasters off Greek coast

Many dead in two separate boat disasters off Greek coast

At least 22 people dead, with many more missing, in two separate incidents hundreds of miles apart

Helena Smith in Athens

Thu 6 Oct 2022 16.32, The Guardian

Search and rescue operations are under way in the west and east of Greece after refugees desperate to reach Europe were involved in two separate disasters just hours apart, the country’s coastguard said.

Almost 12 hours after two vessels sank in the Aegean sea, rescue workers hampered by inclement weather were in a race against the clock on Thursday to find survivors as authorities reported that at least 16 women and a boy had died when an overloaded boat capsized east of the island of Lesbos.

“These are both very difficult operations … due to the strong winds which have been raging relentlessly on both sides of the coasts since last night,” said the Greek coastguard’s spokesperson, Nikos Kokkalas, describing those who had managed to make it to land as “utterly panicked”, adding: “The [dead] women were all from African countries, aged 20 upward.”

The dinghy had set sail with about 40 passengers under cover of darkness from the Turkish coast. While the bodies of 17 people had been recovered and 10 had been saved, a dozen were presumed missing.

In a separate incident hundreds of miles west, at least five people were thought to have died overnight when another boat ran aground off Kythira, to the south of the Peloponnese. In winds of up to 63mph (101km/h), the vessel went down in a notoriously rocky area east of the island’s main port of Diakofti. Local media said about 100 people from Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan were thought to have been crammed on to the sailboat, and that passengers screamed for help as the boat foundered and sank.

By Thursday morning, 80 people had been rescued, of whom at least 13 were taken to Kythira’s hospital.

“If 100 people were on the boat, as I understand that is what they themselves are saying, 80 have been saved and 20 are still missing,” the island’s mayor, Stratos Charchalakis, told ERT TV. “I saw five people drown in front of my own eyes. The boats that are being sent from Turkey are moving bombs … They are small sailboats that shouldn’t have more than 15 or 20 persons onboard, and they have 100.”

Kokkalas, the coastguard spokesperson, said the vessel that sank off Kythira had been “completely destroyed”, and locals described how they watched in horror as the boat crashed into the rocks.

“We could see the boat smashing against the rocks and people climbing up those rocks to try to save themselves. It was an unbelievable sight,” a resident, Martha Stathaki, told the Associated Press. “All the residents went down to the harbour to try to help.”

Although Kythira is about 250 miles west of Turkey, it is part of a southern route increasingly used by smugglers intent on bypassing Greece, where patrols have been reinforced, and heading directly to Italy.

After the incidents, the Greek migration minister, Notis Mitarachi, issued an “urgent call” to Turkey to “take immediate action to prevent all irregular departures due to harsh weather conditions”.

“Already today many lives lost in the Aegean, people are drowning in unseaworthy vessels. EU must act,” he said on Twitter on Thursday.

The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also expressed sorrow for the tragic loss of life as he attended an EU meeting in Prague. Speaking to reporters he said: “I think this is a time to really cooperate much more substantially in order to avoid these types of incidents occurring in the future and to completely eradicate the smugglers who prey upon innocent people, desperate people who try to reach the European continent in vessels which are clearly not seaworthy.”

Athens has accused Ankara of flouting a landmark agreement reached with the EU in March 2016 to stem flows of refugees and migrants by deliberately pushing people across Greek land and sea borders as part of a broader “weaponisation” policy.

Last month the Greek migration ministry said it had prevented about 150,000 people illegally entering the country so far this year, though rights groups say many have been prevented through a policy of pushbacks, in contravention of international law.

As the EU’s southernmost member state, Greece is among the countries on the frontline of east-to-west flows of people desperate to escape poverty, persecution, and dangers linked with the climate crisis, in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

WORD BOX :

- hampered : freiner , ralentir, entraver.

- inclement : peu clément 

- capsized : chavirer, renverser

- utterly : tout à fait, complètement

- dinghy : canot pneumatique

- ran aground off : échoué sur le rivage, a terre

- crammed : entasser

- foundered : sombrer, couler

- unseaworthy : pas en état de naviguer

- flouting : bafouer, mépriser 

- to stem : proue / éproner

- push back : repousser, faire reculer

QUESTIONS : 

1. Introduce the source.

2. Where are these migrants from ? What are the push and pull factors that explain migratory flows to Europe ?

3. What is the agreement signed between Turkey and the EU (March 2016) about ?

4. Why is the author talking about a ‘policy of weaponization?

5. What is the frame of international law as far as migrations are concerned?

ANSWERS :
1. This article is from ‘The Guardian’. A daily British newspaper. It has been published on the web on October, 6 2022 by Helena Smith, ‘The Guardian’ British correspondent in Athens. It deals with the rescue of illegal migrants in the Aegean sea. Migrants crammed by smugglers on unseaworthy boats left Turkiye and drowned off the coast of Lesbos. The island is located on the Northern Aegean Sea a few miles from Turkiye. Between 16,000 and 20,000 migrants live in Lesbos migrant camps.

2. These migrants were from Iraq (2003), Iran and Afghanistan (2001 - 2021) and of course Syria (not mentioned) from 2011 onwards.

PUSH FACTORS Countries of origin	Migrants	PULL FACTORS Countries of destination
Population growth, young age structure, demographic transition is not over	Demographic factors and social infrastructures	Stable population, aging population, demographic transition is over Welfare state benefits : pensions, health care, social security
Unemployment, low wages Poverty, low standard of living	Economic factors	Labour Demand, better wages Consumer society and ‘European Dream’
Dictatorship, corruption, bad governance Conflict : civil war, terrorism, human rights violation, oppression of minorities	Political factors	Democracy, political stability, rule of law, pluralism Peace and security, protection of human rights and minorities
Ecologic disaster : desertification, lack of natural resources, water shortage, soil erosion, lack of environmental policy	Ecological factors	Better environment, protection of natural resources and environment
Family’s choice Information flows, media Possibilities of (ir)regular immigration, routes of trafficking (smugglers)	Migrants flows and migrant stocks	Diaspora, ethnic community Information flows, media, about the destination country Possibilities of (ir)regular immigration according to European / International laws

3. That agreement is nicknamed : « the EU- Turkiye deal ». It is a statement of cooperation between EU states and the Turkish Government which was signed in March 2016.
It agreed on three key points :
● Turkiye would take any measures necessary to stop people travelling irregularly from Turkiye to the Greek islands.

● Anyone who arrived on the islands irregularly from Turkiye could be returned there.
● From every Syrian returned from the islands, EU Member States would accept one Syrian refugee who had waited inside Turkiye.
In exchange, Turkey would receive €6 billion to improve humanitarian situation faced by refugees in the country, and Turkish nationals would be granted visa-free travel to Europe. Eventually, member states began closing their borders in efforts to reaching their territory irregularly. Yet, as the number of the new arrivals in frontline EU states such as Greece increased, the EU began to put greater pressure on Turkiye curb departures from its own coastline. It was supposed to be a ‘temporary measure’ intended to stop irregular migration to Europe.

4. ‘A policy of weaponizing’ can be explained by the economic and social impact of refugees on the Turkish society. In 2002, Turkiye hosted 5,000 refugees and asylum seekers mostly from neighboring countries : Iran, Iraq. Nowadays, the number has risen, according to the Turkish government, to 6,000 000. They are from Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan... The issue of refugees is becoming crucial because of Turkiye’s economic crisis, which since 2017 has seen unprecedented hyperinflation and unemployment, leading to rising inequality, poverty and hunger. As Turkiye headed towards elections in June 2023, the issue of refugees likely dominated the news cycle and played an important role as a campaign issue. Erdogan weaponized the refugees and blamed them for the crisis and explained that Turkiye suffered from a lack of international support. He opened up its border to allow refugees to stream into Europe as a way to put pressure on the EU. It used refugees to blackmail the EU. For instance, in 2016, Erdogan wanted Europe to be involved in the Syrian conflict or in Libya and be free to exploit the Cyprus oil fields off shore.

5. Migration law can be seen mainly from two different, but complementary angles :
The principles and standards deriving from State sovereignty include the right to protect borders, to confer nationality, to admit and expel foreigners, to combat trafficking and smuggling and to safeguard national security.
The human rights of persons involved in migration is related to many relevant conventions exist at the universal and regional levels, although most of them do not explicitly refer to migrant or recognize them as a specific group, they are applicable to any individual under the State’s juridiction, including non-nationals. These instruments are spread across various branches of law, such as human rights law, humanitarian law, refugee law, criminal law and labour law ; the norms relevant to migrants’ rights are therefore dispersed throughout a wide range of texts.

6. On a local scale : the crisis brings into conflict the local population and the migrants. At the core is the existence of Moira, a refugee camp designed to help 2,000 impermanent migrants that is now hosting 20,000 permanent refugees. It is considered as a ghetto where people live in terrible conditions. People in Lesbos are frustrated and angry ; they would like the migrants to leave. They represent 40% of the inhabitants nowadays. Extremist political parties denounce the threat those migrants are for the Greek Orthodox religion.

On a national scale, the crisis is becoming more acute. Clashes between the migrants and the police occurred. The local population went on strike (civil disobedience) and asked for the closure of the camps. The Conservative party has decided to build new infrastructures and seizing the land of the locals to do so. The police and Frontex have been accused of non rescuing the migrants or even of pushing them back to the Turkish sea zone. The Greek government has denied any involvement in the matter but the EU is investigating. After the building of a wall on the continent between Turkiye and Greece opposite to the Turkish city

of Edirne and the Evros river, Greece is considering another floating wall by the coast of Turkiye.
To finish with, we can blame the EU for its policy. Indeed, it has failed to offer enough opportunities to asylum seekers. Out of the 77,290 asylum forms that were filed in 2019, only 2,500 were granted asylum.

ROLE PLAY

You will shoot a video of the role play and send it to : eiepfontainebleau@yahoo.com The deadline is 18, November 2023.

Imagine the journey of an illegal immigrant leaving is native country (Afghanistan) to settle down in EU.

The scene takes place in Turkiye (Bergama) and in Greece (Lesbos) Make up a team of 5 - 6 people and choose one part each.

AN IMMIGRANT Male 24 years old Married 3 children illiterate Has worked as a farm laborer since he was 10.	A SMUGGLER Male 30 years old Single No children Enables immigrants to cross the border illegally for huge sums of money Has already been arrested for his illegal activities	AN IMMIGRATION OFFICER Male 25 years old Single No children Has been only working in this office for two weeks Very ambitious and career -minded
A SOCIAL WORKER Female 29 years old Married 2 children Can help illegal immigrants to get documents Very dedicated to her job.	A HUMAN-RIGHTS ACTIVIST Female 30 years old single No children. Fights against employers exploiting illegal immigrants Idealistic and strong- willed	AN EMPLOYER Male 40 years old Married 3 children Runs a building company Employs lots of illegal immigrants at very low wages Greedy and unscrupulous