Coast guard: forceful intervention would have caused migrant ship to sink

A Greek coast guard spokesperson has said that had an attempt been made to forcefully intervene with the vessel carrying hundreds of migrants before it sank, “the coast guard could have caused the shipwreck of the fishing vessel.”

In an interview with private broadcaster SKAI, Captain Nikos Alexiou fended off criticism about the coast guard’s decision not to intervene after its vessel had approached the overcrowded fishing boat and had seen that hundreds of people were crammed on to its decks.

“If any violent intervention was made on a fishing boat with people packed to the gills, we could have caused the maritime accident. If there was an intervention, there was a risk that we would cause the sinking,” Alexiou said.

He denied that the coast guard was a mere observer of the fishing vessel.

“There is no such thing as simple observers who save 104 fellow human beings. We were there trying to get them to get help. The didn’t realize the danger. [There was] good weather, they were sailing normally.”

Asked if the shipwreck could have been avoided, he said that “ten minutes before it sank, it lost its engine. Had that not happened, there probably wouldn’t have been the movement [of people on board].”

“We were not dealing with weapons or drug dealers. A violent intervention on a vessel with so many people” would have led to a shipwreck.

“We stayed by them if they needed us to save people, and that’s what we did. We were notified by the Italian coast guard of the vessel’s existence. We did what we had to do. The vessel was located, approached by commercial vessels, took supplies from one, and then refused.”

“Later, our own vessel arrived but the 25-30 meter boat declared that it did not want to be rescued, they did not want to come to Greece. Seeing the situation, we didn’t leave … in the morning it lost its engine, the people [on board] moved, it lost the centre of gravity and overturned.”

No suspected traffickers have been arrested, he said. However, some survivors of the shipwreck are being questioned as suspects.

The investigation is continuing, as is the search and rescue effort, he said.