Greek Coast Guard reports shift in migrant smuggling with armed traffickers

ATHENS

Greek Coast Guard Units have said that they have observed a shift in the “tactics of human smugglers” operating in the Aegean Sea, now employing speedboats manned by armed operators, thereby escalating the potential for violent encounters.

"We are no longer dealing with cheap inflatable dinghies equipped with small engines but rather vessels formerly utilized by drug and contraband cigarette trafficking networks," a Coast Guard official told to the Greek daily Kathimerini on Aug. 25.

The smuggling syndicates' operational metamorphosis, now characterized by the use of high-velocity boats to approach the eastern Aegean islands and the enlistment of determined and frequently armed operators, has triggered a series of volatile incidents, he said.

This shift has been a significant contributing factor to the surge in migration flows to Greece, particularly during the summer months.

The official reported encountering over 200 such incidents since the beginning of the year.

His remarks came after Greek Coast Guards opened fire on migrant smuggling boat after an alleged ramming and killed one passenger last week.

A Coast Guard statement said shots were fired, first into the air and then at the speedboat's engine “to avert the direct threat to the patrol boat and its crew” after the helmsman rammed the Greek patrol boat in a bid to escape arrest.

When the boat came to a halt, the statement said, the passenger was found fatally wounded, “probably by a bullet.”

The remaining 13 people on the plastic speedboat — 5 children, 7 men and a woman — were unharmed and were taken to the southeast Aegean Sea Island of Symi. The dead passenger was identified as a 39-year-old man.

Two of the men on the speedboat were arrested on suspicion of belonging to a migrant smuggling gang.

Thousands of migrants try to reach Greece's eastern Aegean islands in small boats every year. In most cases they pay smuggling rings to carry them across, and in several incidents the Greek Coast Guard has reported attempted ramming by smugglers seeking to escape arrest.

Greece has been roundly criticized by human rights organizations over the treatment of migrants trying to reach its shores. In June, it denied a BBC report that accused its coast guard of brutal practices resulting in dozens of deaths.

According to data from the United Nations refugee agency, nearly 30,000 migrants have arrived illegally in Greece so far this year from Türkiye, and, increasingly, from Libya in North Africa.