Regarding the tragedy that occurred in Chios which resulted in the death of 15 migrants last night (03/02), Kostas Kyranis, president of the Panhellenic Federation of Coast Guard Officers (POL), made a statement. Speaking on Parapolitika 90.1 radio show “Apenanti mikrofona” with journalists Sotiris Xenakis and Vassilis Skouris, Mr. Kyranis stated: “Every night our colleagues across Greece patrol on scheduled patrols, in all seas to protect and monitor movements related to migration flows – the same happened last night.”
Chios migrant tragedy: How the violent collision occurred
Subsequently, Mr. Kyranis added that “the inflatable boat was moving in the area conducting a scheduled patrol. When it’s detected that there’s a vessel illegally moving toward our territorial waters, our colleagues send ‘stop’ signals so that inspection can take place and necessary actions can be taken. From what appears and what I believe the investigation will conclude, these specific smugglers did not stop for inspection and turned their boat toward ours. That’s where the violent collision occurred, our colleagues were hit and many people fell into the sea.
“Often smugglers try to prevent arrest”
Finally, Mr. Kyranis was clear regarding the possibility that his colleagues rammed the vessel, stating: “There wasn’t even one chance in a million that our colleagues would ram a boat. It’s quite often that human traffickers try, to prevent arrest, to ram our colleagues’ boats – most times they get away with it and we don’t have incidents. Here it appears they struck our boat with force.”
