The overcrowded fishing trawler Adriana was on its way from Libya to Italy, and on the fifth day of it’s supposed three day journey, they ran into trouble. The Hellenic Coastguard however, did not respond immediately despite being aware of the situation. From the 750 people on board, only 108 survived and 642 lost their lives when the ship capsized as a result of the Coastguards attempt to tow the boat. This move has been widely criticized from all sides on a spectrum of being inadvisable to being completely crazy. All this is covered in part one of this program.
In part two of this series on the Pylos Shipwreck that happened on the morning of the 14th of June 2023, we dive into the aftermath of the tragedy.
After the survivors had been rescued, the people were brought to Kalamata, the closest big port city in Greece. Here people were held in a warehouse with limited contact with the outside world, including the families and loved ones who came looking for them.
The Hellenic Coastguard published a statement after that did not mention the towing attempt at all, and subsequently tried to cover up the fact that they tried to tow the Adriana. This cover up included the intimidation of survivors, false testimonies and the arrests of 9 people who are most likely not responsible.
Through interviews with María Martín and Isa, we will dive deeper into the investigations into the conduct of the Coastguard and the subsequent treatment of the survivors by both the authorities and the media.
Link to the first part: https://cba.media/629008
Link to the text about the Pylos shipwreck by the Assembly against Border Violence Lesbos: https://borderviolencelesvos.noblogs.org/post/category/publications/
María Martín articles she worked on for El Pais concerning the shipwreck:
Music:
Gregor Quendel: Harmonic III & Harmonic VI
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/gregor-quendel