Global Courant
BRUSSELS
The survivors said the Greek Coast Guard was “directly involved in and may have caused” the deadly shipwreck off Greece’s south coast, according to an EU lawmaker.
“Greek authorities knew that a ship carrying refugees was in danger in its waters, but they did not start rescue efforts within hours,” Erik Marquardt, German MP of the European Parliament from the Green Group, told Anadolu.
Some survivors even state that the Greek Coast Guard was directly involved and may have caused the shipwreck.
At least 78 people have died and many more are missing when a fishing boat carrying refugees and migrants sank off the southern coast of Greece.
A total of 104 people were rescued, but the death toll is expected to rise as survivors say the ship was carrying more than 600 migrants, mostly from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria.
Marquardt, a key EU lawmaker on immigration policy as vice-chairman of the European Parliament’s Development Committee and a member of the Civil Liberties, Justice Committee, said Europe is building a “wall of lies” about what’s going on at its borders. and Interior.
He said an independent investigation could reveal precise details of the tragedy.
He said the latest incident in Greek territorial waters was “quite commonplace” because people were dying every day at the EU’s external borders while “authorities were not complying with international maritime law”.
“European Union governments are building a wall of lies about what’s going on at their external borders,” said Marquardt.
“We know pushbacks happen every day and systematically.”
He said these lies were an “attack on democracy” that “Europeans should be ashamed of”.
“Thousands of people die every year because we can’t find an answer (to immigration policy),” he said.
“Smugglers are bad people who exploit the pain of others, but in the end, we’re not really better off if we don’t react when people are in danger.”
‘Building a castle’
Marquardt said the EU “cannot build a wall of corpses on our external borders just because we have some interests when it comes to immigration policy”.
He said the tragedy has once again turned attention to what is happening at the EU’s external borders.
However, he said it is unlikely that this will be a turning point in the approach of EU governments, as “too many minutes to remember” victims of similar disasters have been there.
Regarding the EU’s immigration policy reform deal last week, Marquardt said it was “a very bad decision to enact populism” and reflects the “political interest that no one should come to Europe”.
“It sends a signal to the world that Europeans think they are better than others,” said the Minister, adding that despite his long words, Europeans treat people “against human rights”.
“It sends a signal that the Europeans couldn’t deal with the immigrants as humans (and) were just building a fortress,” he said.
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