In the early hours of June 14, an old steel fishing trawler, reportedly carrying up to 750 people, capsized southwest of Pylos, Greece. More than 80 people have been confirmed dead, more than 100 people have been rescued and hundreds of people are still missing.
According to reports, the boat started its journey from Libya on Friday 9/6, and had already been travelling for more than 4 full days in the Mediterranean, when on Tuesday 13/6 morning, the Italian authorities were informed of its existence by an activist. They then contacted the Greek authorities.
The EU has put in place an expensive surveillance system, called EUROSUR, which consists of satellites and drones. The aim of this system is to allow FRONTEX to monitor the EU’s external borders in order to help protect people’s lives, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea. FRONTEX has the obligation to share the information collected by satellites and drones with Member States in order to enable timely rescue operations.
Yesterday, Homo Digitalis submitted a request for access to the documents before FRONTEX, in which we ask this EU agency for answers to the following questions:
1) Were there any EUROSUR drones and/or satellites operating in the area where the vessel in question was travelling from 9/6 to 13/6?
2) Was Frontex aware of the existence of the vessel in question before Tuesday 13/6, from EUROSUR technologies?
2a)If Frontex was aware, when did it inform the Greek and Italian coastguard of the situation, as required by the EUROSUR Regulation, so that further monitoring of the vessel could be carried out and rescue operations organised?
2b) If Frontex was not aware, what are the reasons for the failure of the EUROSUR system, which is presented as a solid solution for monitoring the EU’s external borders in the Mediterranean region and protecting human lives?
You can read our request in detail here: