A protest march took place in Athens, Greece, on Thursday 13 July, marking a month since the devastating incident in which hundreds of refugees tragically lost their lives at sea.
The demonstration, organised to commemorate the tragic incident, began at 19:00 in Omonia. Participants marched towards Syntagma and the European Union (EU) offices, expressing their disapproval of the EU’s migration policy, which they consider to be responsible for last month’s tragedy, carrying a banner that read, “Pylos was a mass murder by the Greek state and the European Union”.
The march was part of a nationwide day of action, remembering the mass drowning of hundreds of refugees off the coast of Pylos. The organisers levelled serious accusations against the Greek coastguard, the Greek government, and the EU, holding them accountable for the deaths of over 600 refugees.
The statement released by the organisers emphasised, “The tragedy in Pylos will not be forgotten,” and demanded the immediate release of nine migrants who are currently detained. It also called for the survivors to be granted immediate access to legal documentation, decent housing, medical care, and education.
The demonstrators criticised the border policies of the Greek government and, by extension, the EU. They claim these policies are based on pushbacks, compelling thousands of people to use increasingly perilous routes to reach Europe in recent years, hence leading to the refugee tragedies.
