Leaked recordings challenge Greek account of deadly shipwreck

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - ATHENS — Leaked audio instructions by Greek rescue co-ordinators have cast further doubt on Greece's official version of events in the hours before a migrant boat sank along with up to 650 people onboard.

The Adriana went down in the early hours of 14 June 2023 in international waters – but within Greece's rescue zone — after leaving Libya days earlier.

Survivors later told the BBC that coastguards had caused their overcrowded fishing boat to capsize in a botched attempt to tow it and then forced witnesses to stay silent.

The Greek coastguard denied these claims and maintains it did not try to rescue those onboard because they were not in danger and said they had voluntarily wanted to reach Italy, not Greece.

But in a phone call that's now emerged an unnamed man speaking from inside a Greek rescue coordination centre is heard instructing the captain of the migrant boat to tell an approaching ship that those onboard do not want to reach Greece.

The coastguard has not commented on the audio but said it had handed over all available evidence to a Naval Court which is investigating the disaster.

The sinking was one of the worst-ever disasters known to have happened in the Mediterranean Sea.

It is estimated the boat was carrying up to 750 migrants when it set off from the port of Tobruk in Libya nearly a week earlier.

Eighty-two bodies were recovered, but the United Nations believes an additional 500 people — including 100 women and children who were in the hold of the boat — may have died.

Audio recordings obtained by Greek website News247.gr reveal phone calls involving the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) at the port of Piraeus, near the capital Athens.

In the first call, at 18:50 local time (15:50 GMT) on 13 June, an officer is heard explaining to the man piloting the migrant boat that a large red vessel will soon be approaching to give supplies and that he should explain that the migrants do not want to reach Greece.

Officer 1:

The boat proceeding to you in order to give you fuel, water and food. And in one hour we send you a second boat, OK?

Tell captain to big red ship "We don't want to go Greece". OK?

The replies of the man captaining the migrant boat are not heard.

In a second call, 90 minutes later, at 22:10, a seemingly different officer from the same coordination centre, speaks to the captain of the Lucky Sailor (the "big red ship").

Officer 2:

Ok, captain, sorry before I couldn't hear you. I couldn't understand what did you say to me. You told me you gave them food, water and they told you that they don't want to stay in Greece and they want to go to Italy, they don't want anything else?

Lucky Sailor captain:

Yes because I asked them by megaphone "Greece or Italia?" and everybody there screaming Italia.

Officer 2:

Aah, ok, ok everybody screaming that they don't want Greece and they want Italy?

Lucky Sailor captain:

Yes, yes, yes.

Officer 2:

Ok

Lucky Sailor captain:

They are all like crowded people, very crowded, full deck.

Officer 2:

Ok, captain. So you have finished with the supplies?

Lucky Sailor captain:

Yes, sir, yes.

Officer 2:

Captain, I want this, I want this to write it in your logbook. The bridge logbook.

Lucky Sailor captain:

Yes ok, we will write it.

Officer 2:

Ok?

Lucky Sailor captain:

Yes

Officer 2:

I want you to write it about that they don't want to stay in Greece and they want to go to Italy. They want nothing from Greece and they want to go to Italy.

Lucky Sailor captain:

Ok, yes, yes.

Another vessel, the Faithful Warrior, also gave some supplies to the migrant boat but no further conversations between its captain and the Greek authorities have emerged.

The Greek coastguard did not comment on the contents of the conversations but told the BBC it had submitted "all the material it had in its possession, including the audio recordings and the diaries of events" to the Maritime Court Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating.

It said it had rescued more than a quarter of a million migrants in danger at sea in the last decade and arrested more than a thousand smugglers, and that its humanitarian work had been recognised internationally.

BBC investigation in the immediate days after the sinking challenged the Greek authorities' explanation for the disaster.

Analysis of the movement of other ships in the area suggests the overcrowded fishing vessel was not moving for at least seven hours before it capsized.

The coastguard has always insisted that during these hours the boat was on a course to Italy and not in need of rescue.

Last year, a Greek court threw out charges against nine Egyptian men who were accused of causing the shipwreck.

The judges in the southern port city of Kalamata ruled they did not have jurisdiction to hear the case, on the grounds the vessel sank in international waters.

The indictment had showed that the defendants were being prosecuted on evidence that had already been contradicted by at least six survivors, who told the BBC the coastguard had caused their boat to capsize and then pressured them to frame the Egyptians.

Human rights lawyer, Dimitris Choulis, who represented some of the accused Egyptians said he was not surprised by what these recordings.

"We know about the coastguard's tactics of either pushing back or not rescuing people."

He claimed there had been "an attempted cover up from day one."

"They [Greek authorities] told the story 'they did not want to be rescued' and so have insulted the memory of so many dead people," he told the BBC.

Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have said they have strong reservations about the integrity of the Greek investigation and have called for an international investigation.

The Greek Ombudsman — an independent authority removed from the government — has been looking at the allegations.

The disaster is also being examined by the Greek Naval Court. — BBC