Old Greek coastguard clip resurfaces online following trawler tragedy in 2023
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on July 11, 2023 at 05:06
- 4 min read
- By Rimal FARRUKH, AFP Pakistan
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"The disgusting face of European prejudice. It can be clearly seen in the video that instead of helping the survivors of the boat accident, Greece shot and tortured them, moved them back, and forcibly sank them," reads the Urdu-language caption of a video shared on Twitter here on June 21, 2023.
The video appears to show Greek coast guards firing into the sea near a dinghy filled with people. The footage also appears to show people on the dinghy screaming and yelling as they are circled and buffeted by the coastguard vessels.
It was shared just over a week after a fishing trawler carrying hundreds of migrants capsized and sank in the Ionian Sea on the night of June 13 within sight of the Greek coastguard, leaving at least 82 people dead.
AFP reported that some of the survivors blamed the sinking on the actions of the Greek coastguard.
Authorities in Europe still have no clear idea how many people were aboard the boat when it sank -- estimates range from 400 to over 700 -- but likely hundreds came from Pakistan, and many from Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The footage was also posted alongside a similar claim elsewhere on Twitter here, where it was shared more than 160 times, and on Facebook here and here, where it was viewed thousands of times.
March 2020 footage
A keyword search on Google showed the footage circulated in news reports more than three years earlier.
Turkish media outlet Demirören Haber Ajansı (DHA) shared the video on its verified YouTube channel here on March 2, 2020 (archived link).
The video's Turkish-language title reads, "The moment when the Greek coastguard tried to sink a migrant boat caught on film".
Its description says the Greek coastguard tried to sink a migrants' boat off the coast of Bodrum in Mugla province.
"Today, Greek coast guards intervened when migrants set off by boat from Bodrum for Greece. The Greek coastguard first tried to sink the rubber boat carrying the migrants by speeding past it. Then they approached the boat and hit the migrants with long sticks. It was also seen that the Greek coastguard fired into the air near the migrants," reads the description.
"The attempts by the Greek coastguard to sink the migrants' boat were captured on film. The migrants, who were left in a difficult situation at sea while trying to reach Greece, were rescued by the Turkish coastguard."
Below is a screenshot comparison between the video used in the false post (left) and the video uploaded by DHA (right):
Parts of the footage were also used in a video report by the BBC here on March 2, 2020 (archived link).
The BBC report is titled "Greek coast guards fire into sea near migrant boat". It says the footage shows "Greek coast guards firing into the sea near a migrant dinghy, and shoving it around, as they attempted to force it back towards Turkey".
A video posted by Turkish public broadcaster TRT World on its verified YouTube channel here on November 21, 2021, meanwhile, says the footage was released by the country's defence ministry (archived link).
An official from the Turkish coastguard's press and communications team told AFP on July 7, 2023 there had been "push-back" incidents -- attempts to force migrants to turn back towards Turkish waters -- on March 2, 2020, which were documented on their publicly available logs here (archived link).
The log for the March 2, 2020 incident off the coast of Bodrum includes a downloadable report, photos and videos.
Analysis by AFP found these videos matched with the footage that is being shared alongside a false claim on social media.
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