At 8:40 p.m. on October 5, 2022, a coast guard officer on patrol east of Kythira spotted a sailboat heading at high speed toward the rocks. He notified the local commander and the Coast Guard Operations Center and was ordered to remain at the scene. «I saw the boat crash into the rocks and many of the passengers in the water. Some managed to climb onto a very narrow strip of rocky shore and were shouting,» he testified.
The 14-meter-long sailboat was carrying more than 100 refugees and migrants, mainly Afghans, including families with children. The islanders responded immediately that night—one of them rushed to the steep shore with a crane and He saved many people. Eighty people were rescued from the raging sea. Another eight were recovered dead, and at least 15 remain missing.
A 27-year-old man from Syros has been arrested and is being held in connection with the shipwreck off Kythira; he is described in the court documents as the captain’s assistant, though the captain is among the dead. The young man from Syros is set to stand trial before the Three-Member Court of Appeals in Piraeus as a member of the network, but he denies the charges and insists that he, too, was among the passengers on the boat that crashed into the rocks.
From the case file presented by the Magazine, details are revealed about the traffickers« collaboration with the Turkish authorities. At the same time, the spotlight is on the »Calabria Route,” as the long and perilous journey from Turkey directly to Italy is known. More and more refugees and migrants are choosing this route instead of the brief stopover on the Greek islands of the Eastern Aegean, for fear of being illegally returned.
THE LEADER «AMBOU S.»
The journey began at 11 p.m. on October 2 from a deserted beach outside Izmir. Each passenger had paid between 7,500 and 9,000 euros to the smugglers, through the Hawala money transfer system, which meant the money would remain tied up until the journey ended in Calabria. «There were 105 of us on board (…) They put us in the hold and told us we were going to Italy. We were piled on top of each other, with no food and no toilet. On the second day, they told us to go up on deck for a little while to get some fresh air,» one of the survivors testified.
The file lists the first names of Turkish smugglers who were responsible for gathering the migrants on the coast and boarding them onto the boat. The smugglers reportedly answered to a man named «Abu S.,» who is Egyptian and divides his time between Turkey and Dubai. He gives instructions to the captain by phone, alternating with a Turkish accomplice, and also appears to have a direct line to the Turkish police and coast guard.
The captain was also Egyptian, an experienced sailor who reportedly made the same voyage regularly. He asked the migrants to turn off their cell phones and then called the young man from Syros over to him. «For the first nine hours of the trip, I was down below with the rest of them; then the captain asked who spoke Turkish so they could act as an interpreter for a Turkish man who was giving him instructions over the phone,» said the 27-year-old. «He told me to check the engine temperature because the boat was old. I agreed to help him so that on the next trip he could take my wife and child for less money.».
The young man from Syros, who is facing a long prison sentence, had been living in Turkey for three years, where he worked for a clothing company. He left behind his wife and one-year-old daughter and boarded a boat bound for Italy, with the goal of reaching Norway. He says he paid the network 9,000 euros via Hawala and submitted the money transfer receipt to the Piraeus investigating magistrate.
He is represented by criminal defense attorney Yiannis Glykas and has insisted from the very beginning that he was merely a passenger on the slave ship. No one claims that he gave them money, and those who were asked whether he had threatened them not to name him as a member of the network—once they had been rescued on Kythira—answered in the negative.
The port authorities asked the man from Syros if S. was cooperating with the Turkish police. He replied that when the migrants were boarding the boat, the smugglers told them to hurry because Turkish police officers were watching them. According to the same testimony, the captain had been assured that he would not encounter any Turkish coast guard vessels, which is exactly what happened.
«The boat could hold 40 people, but there were more than 100 of us. I got scared, and after two hours I told the captain to turn back, but he replied that if we turned back, they would shoot at us,» the man from Syros said at another point. «We came across a military vessel. The captain called S. again, and he told him not to do anything and, if they stopped us for inspection, to say that we were going to Italy.».
Meanwhile, on the third day at sea, the situation took a dramatic turn. «We heard a loud noise, the boat shook violently, and water started pouring in. Everyone was screaming for help, and some people were calling the police. We were all trying to get out, and we fell into the water; after a while, they pulled me out with a rope, and I was saved,» said one of the passengers. «The waves were crashing us against the rocks, and the sea was sweeping many people away. I saw many people drowning,» said a second passenger. According to the testimonies, there were only 10–11 life jackets on the boat.
«Two hours before the shipwreck, I was really scared. I grabbed the captain’s cell phone and called S., who told us to hold on for two hours and the wave would pass,» said Syros, who is now a defendant. «The women were crying; the boat was rocking violently. S. sent maps showing the direction we were supposed to follow, and I told him I didn’t understand. I gave him the coordinates, and he said we should leave that area because there were rocks. The captain wanted to steer the boat toward a coast without lights,» he claimed.
«The boat crashed into the rocks. I grabbed a life jacket, and the others told me I would die just like them. I climbed up the rock until they threw a large bag down to me from above (note: the bag used to transport construction materials that the crane had lowered). I managed to get inside, and they lifted me up and rescued me.».
«THE CALABRIAN ROUTE»
Smugglers established the direct Turkey-Italy route in 2021. The boats pass off the coasts of Ikaria and Naxos, then south of Folegandros, and after Kythira, they usually head toward Calabria. In 2021, more than 60,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Italy. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, one in six had set out from Turkey, meaning they had crossed the Aegean Sea. Migrants do everything they can to avoid the Greek islands, fearing pushbacks and detention in holding centers.
The Greek authorities are not stopping the human traffickers, who, paradoxically, are operating right under their noses. The main excuse is that they cannot conduct inspections in international waters—that is, in the zone between two islands on the open sea. However, in practice, it is considered unlikely that all vessels would perform the maneuvers necessary to remain permanently in international waters. Put simply, when a people-smuggling vessel is headed for Italy, the Greek authorities in the Aegean appear to look the other way. In other words, traffickers are dealt with selectively, depending on where they are headed.
It is estimated that in 2021 alone, around 150 boats took the «Calabrian Route,» yet we only hear about it when people drown at sea. On Christmas Eve 2021, in three separate shipwrecks off Folegandros, Paros, and Antikythira, 30 people drowned, and at least as many others remain missing to this day. One of the survivors, who lost his wife and two children off the coast of Folegandros, spoke exclusively to the Magazine. «I watched my family—my children—disappear into the water. I couldn’t help them,» he said.
Three days after the latest shipwreck off Kythira, coast guard officers continued their search at the site of the tragedy. An official memo states in a matter-of-fact tone: «Six bodies were recovered, four men and two women, who will be transported to the port of Kalamata and subsequently to the General Hospital of Kalamata under the care of the 6th Health Region of the Peloponnese. Further developments will be reported in our next update.».
KOSTAS KOUKOUMAKAS,
