Author:
Emma Batha
 |
| Afghan migrant Fadi Mohammad (C), who says he lost his wife and three of his children when their boat capsized, is escorted by his son (L) and a compatriot after a prayer session in Athens, on Jan. 24, 2014. REUTERS/Giorgos Moutafis |
LONDON
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A survivor of a migrant boat tragedy
in which a dozen people are thought to have drowned in Greek waters
has given a harrowing account of last week’s disaster in which he
saw his wife and four children perish as their boat sank while being
towed by the coast guard.
Safi
Ehsanullah said when he asked for help to save his children, one of
the coast guards pointed a gun at him, according to an interview on
the Greek news website Pandora’s Box. He also said coast guards
beat back desperate migrants trying to scramble from their sinking
vessel onto the guards’ boat.
The
boat was carrying up to 28 people, mostly Afghans and a few Syrians.
The dead and missing include three women and nine children under the
age of 12, according to reports.
Ehsanullah,
an Afghan, described how their boat broke down in the dark as they
approached Greece two hours after leaving Turkey late at night on
Jan. 20. When the coast guard appeared they were initially relieved,
according to Ehsanullah’s account posted this week on the Greek
Forum of Refugees
website.
“Two
of them got inside our boat and tied our boat to their own. But
unexpectedly they turned back and were pulling us back to Turkey with
zigzag and very high speed,” Ehsanullah said.
“Suddenly
the part of the ship to which the Greek coastal guard’s ship was
tied, broke off from the ship carrying the refugees, causing great
damage to the boat and thus allowing water to flood the boat. The
boat was old and frail, and began to sink.
“The
guard gave the order to tie the boat again and to start pulling
again, but the boat was full of water so they cut the rope and tried
to escape. Refugees’ belongings, bags, etc stuck to the coast
(guard) boat engine and it started to emit smoke and there was a
panic among the coast guard.”
He
said some of the people still in the water managed to hang onto the
coast guard boat, but the guards kicked and shouted at them and
prevented them clambering in.
“One
of the survivors from Syria, tried saving a woman by extending her a
stick from the safety of the coastal guard boat, but was brutally
prevented by a member of the coastal guard, who beat the man,” he
added.
TRAPPED
CHILDREN
Pandora’s
Box quoted Ehsanullah as saying that the coast guards beat
people’s hands as they tried to get on the boat making them fall in
the sea.
“Whoever
was in the cabin – women and children mainly – were trapped. We
were asking for life jackets to save our people, but they did not
give us any. I told them that my children were drowning. One of them
pointed his gun at me,” he said.
Only
two bodies - one woman and one child - have been recovered. One baby
survived. All the other children are believed to have been in the
cabin.
The
U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), which is helping the survivors with
asylum as well as legal and social support, said they were all
vulnerable and traumatised people fleeing Afghanistan and Syria.
"The
survivors said the coast guard ... pointed guns at them while they
spoke in insulting language. When the boat ultimately overturned and
people fell overboard, there were no life jackets or ropes thrown to
them,” UNHCR spokeswoman Ketty Kehayioylou told Thomson Reuters
Foundation by phone from Athens.
She
said UNHCR had received many reports from migrants about illegal
pushbacks from Greek sea and land borders, some involving people
fleeing Syria. The U.N. agency sent documentation to Greek
authorities in November detailing several incidents in which the
coast guard had allegedly forced migrant boats back towards Turkish
shores, but Kehayioylou said they had not received any reply.
Greek
prosecutors have opened
an inquiry into
the Aegean Sea disaster. The Greek coast guard has strongly denied
the migrants’ claims, saying they had been trying to take the boat
to the nearby island of Farmakonisi when it capsized.
Greece,
a major gateway into the European Union, has long complained of being
overwhelmed by migrants, and its economic crisis has boosted
anti-immigrant sentiment. In 2012, the country built a 10.5-km
(6-mile) fence along a section of its land border with Turkey.
Source:
Thomson Reuters Foundation - Wed, 29 Jan 2014 09:39 AM
