Greece - elections and shocking allegations of casting off Migrants at the sea

[alhoon]

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/2...-ship-disaster

Now that we have elections and the disaster is sensational, the hammer came down hard and fast. 9 people arrested. Couldn't we or the Egyptians have arrested them beforehand? Probably. But apparently, for the authorities to do their job, we need headlines and a 100 dead (the retrieved bodies were 79, but more than 400 people are still missing; it will increase).

Furthermore (source in Greek) the FRONTEX new boss gives some chilling accounts of how smugglers and pirates in central Mediterranean act. The migrants are now often in small flimsy quickly assembled ships that are very vulnerable. "Competing" migrants surround their craft if they find them in the waters and try to extort money. If the migrants cannot pay, the pirates keep them surrounded and push them back till the ship comes apart and sinks.

How can people simply watch screaming families begging for their lives as the ship starts slowly coming apart, I have no idea.

As for the ship refusing help: That was the smugglers talking, not the people.

[Kyriakos]

Obviously a massive tragedy. But I do fear the political game involved can't help in the election at all, Syriza seems set to further collapse.
Maybe if I felt they are idealistic enough, I'd wager they are aware and just stick to principles, but I don't, so conclude they just lost any touch with their trajectory and try to hold on where no handle is offered.
I found it interesting that the smugglers were dead set to continue to Italy (instead of being taken to Greece) - I suppose that was their specific contract with those unfortunate people in the boat.

[Gyrosmeister]

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/2...-ship-disaster

Now that we have elections and the disaster is sensational, the hammer came down hard and fast. 9 people arrested. Couldn't we or the Egyptians have arrested them beforehand? Probably. But apparently, for the authorities to do their job, we need headlines and a 100 dead (the retrieved bodies were 79, but more than 400 people are still missing; it will increase).

Furthermore (source in Greek) the FRONTEX new boss gives some chilling accounts of how smugglers and pirates in central Mediterranean act. The migrants are now often in small flimsy quickly assembled ships that are very vulnerable. "Competing" migrants surround their craft if they find them in the waters and try to extort money. If the migrants cannot pay, the pirates keep them surrounded and push them back till the ship comes apart and sinks.

How can people simply watch screaming families begging for their lives as the ship starts slowly coming apart, I have no idea.

As for the ship refusing help: That was the smugglers talking, not the people.

That's the point I was trying to make, those smuggling and trafficking NGOs are the criminals in this, who charge the migrants a couple of thousand dollars for a trip like that. And the smugglers are the ones in charge of those ships, which are often flag-less, which makes everything way more complicated, especially when those ships are in international waters, so they will have the "authority" in asking/declining help.
And perhaps you can put blame on the government for not cracking down those smuggling networks and not cutting off social benefits etc for all these who come, and begging them to come basically (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYJy68NgLb8). These smuggling operations won't stop by arresting a couple of smugglers, but when we (as Greece) make it 100% clear to any potential migrant that it's not worth it to jump in one of these ruined vessels to begin with. The network will cease to exist when the migrant who managed to come to Greece will phone his friends and family at his country in Africa or the Middle East and tell them ("It's not worth it, the smugglers are lying, you will get arrested if you are caught, there will be no social benefits etc").

And yes, someone needs to die in Greece before we do something. Remember the Mati wildfires of 2018, when the 112 wasn't in place, and it was only implemented by ND in 2019, or more recently, with the Tempi crash where certain safety systems had not been installed for over 20 years, and only now they made stealing wires and everything from the lines of the railways a felony