Seventeen members of Greece’s Hellenic Coast Guard have been charged over the 2023 Pylos shipwreck, one of the deadliest migrant boat disasters in the Mediterranean in the past decade.
The Adriana, an overcrowded fishing trawler carrying up to 750 migrants—many of them Syrian refugees fleeing conflict and poverty—sank on June 14, 2023, shocking the international community.
The vessel had departed from Libya bound for Italy when it sank in international waters within Greece’s search and rescue zone near Pylos.
At least 82 bodies were recovered following the disaster, but up to 650 people, including many women and children trapped below deck, are feared dead. Only 104 passengers survived.
Nearly two years later, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Piraeus Naval Court has indicted 17 coast guard personnel, including the captain of the LS-920 vessel, over their handling of the Adriana disaster, according to a BBC report released on Tuesday.
The captain faces charges of “causing the shipwreck,” “dangerous interference with maritime transport,” and “failure to provide assistance.”
Four senior officials, including the former chief of the Coast Guard and the supervisor of the National Search and Rescue Coordination Centre, have been charged with “exposing others to danger.” The crew members of the LS-920 face charges of “simple complicity.”
The indictment follows an inquiry that found serious procedural failures. The coast guard reportedly delayed the search-and-rescue (SAR) operation, waiting for the Adriana to leave Greece’s jurisdiction and enter Italian waters.
A source cited in the 148-page report stated, “At no point before the sinking was the situation escalated from simple monitoring to a distress or alert status,” contradicting coast guard claims that the vessel was seaworthy and that no distress calls were received.
The investigation also revealed that the coast guard failed to respond to calls from the European Union’s border agency Frontex, did not request additional assistance, and deployed only one coast guard vessel to the scene—a ship designed to carry just 36 people, staffed by special forces but equipped with minimal rescue gear
Families demand justice
Survivors have disputed the official account, alleging that the Coast Guard attempted a risky tow that caused the Adriana to capsize and later suppressed key testimonies.
“They attached a rope from the left side,” said Musaab, a Syrian refugee speaking under a pseudonym to protect his identity, in an interview with the BBC.
“Everyone moved to the right side of our boat to balance it. The Greek vessel moved off quickly, causing our boat to flip. They kept dragging it for quite a distance.”
Musaab and another Syrian refugee, Ahmad, also reported being silenced by officials after arriving in Kalamata.
“The coast guard told us to ‘shut up’ when we started to talk about how the Greek authorities had caused the disaster,” Ahmad said, adding that: “When people said the Greek coast guard was to blame, the official in charge told the interpreter to stop the interviewee from talking.”
He also revealed that his younger brother was among those who did not survive the sinking.
“I’m glad they are finally being held accountable,” he said. “But until I see them behind bars, nothing has truly been done. Honestly, I don’t trust the Greek legal system.”
A joint legal team representing the victims called the charges “a significant and self-evident step toward justice and vindication for the victims.”
The 17 coast guard members are expected to be questioned in the coming weeks. The court will later decide whether to proceed with a full trial or dismiss the charges.
Greek authorities have consistently denied any wrongdoing, emphasizing that the Coast Guard respects human rights and has rescued more than 250,000 people at sea over the past decade.
Survivors of a migrant shipwreck off Greece in June, in which hundreds died, have filed a lawsuit against the Greek authorities, accusing them of violating their duty to protect the lives of the people on board the vessel.
