Human Rights Court Condemns Greece Over Sunk Migrant Boat

Members of the Afghan community of Greece protest in Athens on 7 February 2014 over the death of 12 immigrants off the island of Farmakonisi on 23 January, 2014.  Photo: EPA/ALKIS KONSTANTINIDIS

"It is a milestone decision; it is the only one of its kind and it brings back to the public debate the issue of pushbacks and the 'legendary' security of the Greek and European borders. This issue does not concern only Greece but also the EU," Konstantinos Tsitselikis, Professor of Human Rights Law at the University of Macedonia, one of the lawyers for the five organizations that represented the 16 survivors, told BIRN.

On January 20, 2014, 11 Afghans, including eight children, lost their lives when the small vessel they were in sank near Farmakonisi, a small island in the southeastern Aegean Sea.

The 16 survivors claimed that the Greek coast guard sank the boat when they towed it at high speed towards Turkey.

A 21-year-old Syrian refugee initially was found guilty by the Greek courts for the shipwreck and the drowning of the 12 Afghans. He was accused of driving the vessel and was sentenced to 145 years and 3 months in prison and a fine of 570,000 euros.

A Court of Appeal ruled in 2017 that no person on the vessel could have prevented the fatal shipwreck and commuted the Syrian's sentence to ten years and, according to the criminal code, he was set to be released.

The survivors and five Greek and international organizations - the Greek Council for Refugees, the Lawyers' Group for the rights of Refugees and Immigrants, the Greek Union of Human Rights and the Network of Social Support of Refugees and Immigrants, Refugee Support Aegean - appealed to the European Court of Human Rights against Greece in the case.

They considered,...