A Frontex report suggesting that many of the deaths caused by the shipwreck off the Greek coast near Pylos last June could have been prevented was released by the Aegean Boat Report NGO on their X feed yesterday evening (January 31).
Investigations into what happened to the Adriana, an overcrowded fishing vessel carrying some 750 people from Libya to Italy that sank off the coast of Greece on June 13, are ongoing.
However, a report produced by the European Border Agency Frontex — marked “sensitive” and dated December 1, 2023 — was posted to X (formerly known as Twitter) late on January 31.
The report was posted by Aegean Boat Report, an organization working with migrants in the eastern Mediterranean.
In their post on X, they thank freelance Brussels-based journalist Eleonora Vasques for “making it available to the public.” Frontex told InfoMigrants in an email that they had released the report via their “Transparency Office.” They added that the “release wass part of a Public Access to Documents request, an important process that allows us to share information with the public.”
Vasques writes regularly for the European news portal Euractiv. One of her latest reports looks into what happened in the Cutro shipwreck off Italy almost a year ago. The story was also sourced back to an internal Frontex report, which concluded that more lives could have potentially been saved if the response from Frontex and the Italian coast guard had been different.
▻https://twitter.com/ABoatReport/status/1752800986664448090
Long and detailed report
The 17-page Pylos report from Frontex is redacted in parts and goes into great detail about what happened and which authorities and merchant ships were involved. It also compares timelines from various authorities, NGOs and media organizations.
In the email to InfoMigrants, Frontex continued that they “strive to make such documents available in our Public Register of Documents as promptly as possible.” The Press Spokesperson Krzysztof Borowski wrote that the “Pylos tragedy is a stark reminder of the challenges and dangers faced at sea. We at Frontex share the profound concern and sadness of the public regarding this heartbreaking event.” He finished by saying: “Our thoughts are with all those affected by this tragedy, and we remain dedicated to our mission of safeguarding lives while ensuring border security.”
Committment to ’assess cases more thoroughly
Although the report finds that Frontex “followed applicable procedures”, it admitted that “going forward and based on a reviewed assessment methodology ... the team … should assess similar cases more thoroughly against the need to issue a Mayday alert.”
A Mayday alert is a radio distress signal used at sea.
The report appears to suggest that more could have been done on the day to prevent such a huge loss of life.
According to the Frontex report posted on X, “in the hours following the sighting of Adriana, Frontex made three attempts to follow up on the case, by suggesting additional Frontex Surveillance Aircraft (FSA) sorties.”
Frontex writes that “no reply was received by the Greek authorities to Frontex’ repeated offers until Adriana’s shipwreck.”
Frontex made an initial statement on June 16 expressing “shock and sadness” at the events off Pylos.
’Greek authorities failed to timely declare a search and rescue situation’
Although the investigating office at Frontex underlines that it is “not in a position to conclude what caused Adriana’s capsizing and shipwreck … it appears that the Greek authorities failed to timely declare a search and rescue and to deploy a sufficient number of appropriate assets in time to rescue the migrants.”
The report stated that Frontex “regrets the lack of information provided by the Greek authorities to its enquiry but still expects to receive updates from the national investigations in progress.”
According to Frontex’ timeline of the incident, the agency first learned about the existence of the fishing vessel carrying migrants on June 13 at around 10:12 UTC, or around 13:12 in Greek summer time. They spotted the vessel from their aerial surveillance plane Eagle 1. About four hours later, another update was sent to the fundamental rights monitor, but according to the report, nothing “out of the ordinary” was flagged regarding the vessel at this point.
The next paragraph jumped to June 14 at 06.19 UTC, when the fundamental rights monitor received “another update … notifying that Adriana sank overnight and a SAR [Search and Rescue] was in progress.”
’Serious Incident Report’ launched by Frontex on June 26
In the following days, the Office for Fundamental Rights at Frontex monitored the aftermath of the incident, states the report.
They studied “Frontex’ own sightings of Adriana” along with “statements by Greek officials, and initial information reported in the media.”
Frontex launched a “Serious Incident Report (SIR) on June 26, “to clarify the role of Frontex in the incident as well as the legality and fundamental rights compliance of the assistance to the boat in distress, and the coordination and conduct of rescue operation by national authorities.”
According to a summary of that work, the first mention of the Adriana came from the Italian control authorities in Rome at 08:01 UTC on June 13.
At that point, Rome’s search and rescue authorities contacted Greece’s authorities and Frontex about “a fishing vessel with approximately 750 migrants on board, known to be sailing within the Greek Search and Rescue Region at 06:51 UTC.” At that point, Rome had already alerted the authorities to “reports of two dead children on board.”
After receiving this report, Frontex wrote that it directed its plane Eagle 1, which was already in the air, to fly over the fishing vessel “even though the vessel lay outside the normal patrolling route.”
The report said the Eagle 1 spotted the “heavily overcrowded” vessel at 09:47 UTC and informed the Greek authorities. Ten minutes later, the plane left the area due to low fuel and returned to base.
Italian authorities report Adriana ’adrift’ long before Greek authorities do
By 13:18, Rome’s search and rescue authorities provided an update of the situation to Greek authorities and Frontex. At that point, they said the boat was “reported adrift” and had “seven people dead on board.”
At 14:54, Frontex reportedly received an email from the NGO Watch The Med – Alarm Phone alerting Frontex, JRCC Piraeus, the Greek Ombudsman’s Office, UNHCR and others to the new location of the fishing boat. In that email, Alarm Phone stated there were “several very sick individuals, including babies” among the approximately 750 people on board and that the boat was “not able to sail.”
About 30 minutes later, this email was forwarded by Frontex to the Greek National Coordination Center and JRCC Piraeus, and it was sent on to the Fundamental Rights Office.
About an hour later, Frontex contacted the Greek authorities to request an update on the situation. Frontex also offered to deploy a surveillance aircraft to check on the ship’s current position, but reports it received no reply.
Just under two and a half hours later, the Greek authorities did request that Frontex support them “in the detection of a migrant boat within the maritime area south of Crete, as part of another SAR operation.” This turned out to be a sailing boat with about 50 people on board.
’No reply was received’
Later that evening, Frontex contacted the Greek authorities twice more and said no reply was received.
At 23:20 UTC, Frontex redirected the plane that had been helping with the fishing boat off Crete to the last known position of the fishing vessel.
The timeline moves to June 14. At 02:46 UTC, Frontex informs the Greek authorities that its plane was headed towards the last position of the fishing vessel. It says it received no reply from the Hellenic authorities.
Over an hour passed before the plane, this time the Heron 2, reached the “operational area” where it spotted “nine maritime assets (eight merchant vessels and one Hellenic Coast Guard patrol vessel) and two helicopters involved in a large-scale SAR operation.” At that point, states Frontex in the report “no signs of the fishing vessel were spotted.”
At 05:31, Frontex told the Greek authorities that its plane Heron 1 was about to leave the operation, but offered Eagle 1, which was already airborne, to help with the SAR operation. The Greek authorities replied over two hours later that “no further aerial surveillance support was needed for the time being.”
No mention of dead bodies on board in Greek timeline
The Frontex report then includes a similar timeline from the Greek authorities. In the Greek version, there is no initial mention of dead bodies on board. They say they established contact with those on board and “no request for assistance was addressed to the Greek authorities.”
Although the Italians reported that the vessel was already adrift around 13:18 UTC, according to the Frontex report, in the Greek version, the vessel is “still sailing with a steady course and speed” at 15:00 UTC.
Around that same time, a Maltese flagged commercial vessel approaches the fishing boat to supply them with food and water, as requested by the Greek authorities. According to the Greek report, the people on board were repeatedly asked if they were facing “any kind of danger” or were “in need of additional support.” Their answer, according to Greece, was “they just wanted to continue sailing towards Italy.”
30 minutes later, again according to JRCC Piraeus, via satellite phone contact, those on board said they wanted to keep sailing.
At 18:00, the boat was approached again. According to the report, the migrants “accepted water” from the Greek-flagged commercial vessel that approached them, but “threw the rest of the supplies into the sea.” This approach and refusal of assistance carried on into the evening.
Adriana ’still holding a steady course and speed’
At 19:40 UTC, according to the Greek report, a Greek coast guard vessel approached the fishing vessel and “remained at a close distance in order to observe it.” It was still holding a “steady course and speed, without any indications of sailing problems.”
It was only at 22:40 UTC, according to the Greek report, that the fishing vessel “stopped moving and informed the Greek authorities that they had an engine failure.”
A Greek coast guard vessel then immediately approached the vessel to assess the situation. Less than an hour later — at 23:04 UTC, but 02:04 local time on June 14 — the Greek report notes that the fishing vessel “took an inclination to the right side, then a sudden inclination to the left side and again a great inclination to the right side, and eventually capsized.”
They said "people on the external deck fell in the sea and the vessel sunk within 10-15 minutes.” At that point, the Hellenic coast guard “initiated a SAR operation.”
The Frontex report then notes “alleged discrepancies” between the various timelines and survivor statements given to the media.
They say that many of the survivors reported that the Greek coast guard “tied ropes onto the fishing vessel in an effort to tow it,” which allegedly caused it to destabilize and capsize.
In the past, the Greek coast guard have tied and towed vessels successfully towards safety.
However, while the Greek coast guard acknowledged that one rope was attached around three hours before the boat sank to ascertain passengers’ conditions, there was “no attempt to tow it.”
The rope, say the Greeks, was removed by the migrants on board just a few minutes later and the coast guard vessel moved a distance away to continue observation.
Was Adriana stationary prior to capsizing or not?
The BBC and several other media outlets also reported at the time that prior to capsizing and sinking, the fishing vessel had not moved for several hours.
This is consistent with the Frontex timeline, which mentions the Italian authorities’ warnings that the boat was adrift the day before it eventually capsized.
Later in the report, Frontex notes that many of the “alternative and complementary timelines” put together by international NGOs and journalists are “credible” as they quote “more than one source for each statement.”
The Frontex report looks into the question of whether or not the Adriana was drifting for several hours before sinking.
It concludes that the Faithful Warrior, one of the merchant tankers sent to assist, was tracked between 17:00 and 20:00 and was “likely stationary or moving at extremely slow speed (less than 1 knot),” indicating that the Adriana was probably not sailing normally until shortly before it capsized as the Greek report claimed.
The report also consulted “maritime experts to gain insight into issues pertaining to stability when a trawler of Adriana’s type is overloaded with human cargo.” Although their consultations were not precise due to a lack technical data, the experts indicated that the amount of people on board could have destabilized the boat or affected its stability.
Testimony from survivors
A Frontex team took testimonies from survivors after the shipwreck. They said they were told there were between 125 and 150 Syrians on board, including five women and six children.
Around 400-425 Pakistanis were on board, the report said, most of whom were placed on the lower decks. The access ladders had been removed, making it impossible for them to exit.
There were also between 150 and 170 Egyptians and about 10 Palestinians on board. The alleged smugglers were all said to be Egyptians and enforced discipline with pocket knives.
Numerous fights broke out on board, particularly after food ran out a few days into sailing. At some point, the captain allegedly suffered a heart attack and the boat was “drifting without engine for extended periods of time.” On day four, June 12, six people were reported to have died, and others had resorted to drinking urine or sea water.
On day five, June 13, some migrants said they received supplies from two vessels and “at night … were approached by a small boat that they were asked to follow.”
They said they could not do this because of their engine malfunction. Several of the migrants also allege that attempts were made to tow the vessel — presumably by the Hellenic coast guard, they said.
Survivors also said that at one point, a boat tied a rope to the front of the Adriana and started “making turns”. This, they said, “caused the migrants to run to one side, their vessel started rocking, and eventually capsized within 15 minutes.”
Only people on the upper decks were able to jump into the water.
Greek authorities leave ’detailed questions answered’
In July, Frontex said it approached the Greek authorities with a “detailed set of questions” but most of its questions were left unanswered.
In conclusion, the Frontex Fundamental Rights Office concluded that although Frontex “upheld” all its “applicable procedures,” in the light of the information that had already been transmitted and similar situations in which Mayday alerts had been issued, the assessment could have been different and the process for issuing Mayday alerts in the future “needs to be reviewed.”
The report admits that “at the time of the initial sighting [of the Adriana] by Eagle 1, there was reasonable certainty that persons aboard … were threatened by grave and imminent danger and required immediate assistance.”
They also say the “resources mobilized by the [Greek] authorities during the day … were not sufficient for the objective of rescuing the migrants.”
Frontex adds that the Greek authorities appear to have “delayed the declaration of SAR operation until the moment of the shipwreck when it was no longer possible to rescue all the people on board.”
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