Acceptance of refugee abuse in Europe is alarming, a prime human rights defender has mentioned after a Greek sinking tragedy.
Dunja Mijatović, the commissioner for human rights on the Strasbourg-based watchdog, the Council of Europe, mentioned she was “struck by the alarming stage of tolerance to severe human-rights violations towards refugees, asylum seekers and migrants that has developed throughout Europe”.
Such violations have been “now so frequent that they hardly register within the public consciousness,” she added.
Mijatović spoke in an announcement on Monday (19 June), following final week’s sinking of a ship with as much as 750 folks on board.
Simply 104 survivors have been discovered, making the incident, which befell at 2AM on 14 June within the Ionian Sea some 87km southwest of Pylos in Greece, one of many worst shipwrecks in trendy instances.
An Italian-led rescue operation additionally rescued a whole lot of individuals over the previous two days, based on Italian media.
However the Ionian sinking continues to pose laborious questions on accountability and the position of the Greek coast guard.
Conservative Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis fended off criticism of the rescue operation from opposition MPs and NGOs over the weekend, forward of his re-election bid on 25 June.
He additionally blamed smugglers for what occurred, echoing calls for by the European Fee to accentuate the crackdown on human-traffickers.
The Greek coast guard claims the boat was on a “regular course and pace” in the direction of Italy and had refused support.
It admits attaching a tow rope, however says this did not trigger the capsize.
The rope was merely used to “regular themselves, to method, to see in the event that they needed any assist”, a coast-guard spokesman mentioned.
However a BBC investigation has solid doubt on the official model of what actually occurred.
The BBC, primarily based on monitoring information supplied by MarineTraffic, says the boat had in actual fact not moved for seven hours.
BBC testimonies collected from survivors additionally say the Greek coast guard tried to tow the boat, which later capsized.
One other survivor instructed The Sunday Instances newspaper that after the boat capsized, survivors have been left within the water for at the very least three hours earlier than rescue.
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The Greek coast guard did nothing as folks treaded water, he mentioned.
“They simply watched,” he mentioned. “They might have saved so many extra.”
An identical testimony was reported by La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper.
“They hooked us with the ropes, then gave a yank and the boat turned over,” a survivor mentioned.
A Greek investigation has since been launched.
However that probe will likely be held in secrecy, following a requirement by Greece’s supreme courtroom prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos.
And Dogiakos already stands accused of obstructing a separate investigation into using Pegasus spy ware by the Greek authorities, making some MEPs sceptical in regards to the due course of.
“The requires secrecy by basic prosecutor Dogiakos and witnesses being saved incommunicado are worrying,” mentioned Dutch liberal MEP Sophie In’t Veld, in a tweet.
For its half, the EU Fee instructed reporters on Monday that the Greek investigation must be “thorough and clear.”
9 Egyptians have been arrested on suspicion of being folks smugglers.
Among the many survivors have been reportedly 47 Syrians, 43 Egyptians, 12 Pakistanis and two Palestinians.
