On 1 July 2025 the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rejected the Greek Government's request to refer the case to the Court's Grand Chamber, thus the Judgment in A.R.E. v. Greece (no. 15783/21) has become final.66 Between the publication of the A.R.E. Judgment, on 7 January 2025, and 31 December 2025, the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) submitted 24 requests for interim measures (R 39) to the ECtHR, which were all granted. These concerned 131 asylum seekers (including families with children). In only four of these cases were the applicants subjected to legal procedures by the Greek authorities, while in the other cases the applicants either complain that they were subjected to a pushback operation or information on their whereabouts was lost67. Finally, it bears emphasising that this decision comes in response to years of statements by Greek Governments that Greece does not conduct pushbacks, merely discarding the existence of such credible allegations and report by independent organisations, taking a stance of complete denial. 68 The Pylos shipwreck Most of the dead or missing persons of 2023 disappeared or died on the night of 13th to 14th of June 2023. That night, the overcrowded fishing vessel “Adriana”, carrying an estimated 750 persons, capsized 47 nautical miles southwest of Pylos, Greece, in the Greek Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. The vessel left Libya and was en route to Italy. On that one night, an estimated 650 persons went missing or died in one of the deadliest shipwrecks to ever occur in Greece and in the Mediterranean. Of those on board the “Adriana”, 104 survived, 9 of whom are currently in pre-trial detention with criminal charges of smuggling, 69 and 82 bodies were recovered.70 On 13 September 2023, forty71 survivors of the deadly shipwreck in Pylos filed a criminal complaint against all responsible parties before the Naval Court of Piraeus.72 The survivors submit that the Greek authorities failed to immediately intervene and to organise a timely and adequate rescue operation despite their duty to rescue the passengers, in accordance with international law of the sea, human rights Law, EU and domestic law.73 In particular, the plaintiffs argue that the authorities had been informed from the outset, and later ascertained themselves firsthand from close distance, of the imminent threat to life facing passengers on board the manifestly unseaworthy and overcrowded trawler. The complainants allege that the Greek authorities not only refrained from taking the necessary rescue measures as soon as the vessel was sighted, but instead proceeded to attempt to tow the vessel, which resulted in its capsizing and sinking. The Greek authorities’ delay in initiating a SAR operation, “until the moment of the shipwreck when it was no longer possible to rescue all the people on board” as well as failure to deploy sufficient resources or make use of those available to them, was also noted in a leaked serious incident report 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 Greek Council for Refugees, Press Release - ECtHR : The Court rejects the Greek Government's request for a review of the pushback case A.R.E. v. Greece, 2 July 2025, available here. Greek Council for Refugees, GCR’s Information Note on interventions and on interim measures granted by the ECtHR in cases regarding pushbacks, updated on 12 January 2026, available at: https://tinyurl.com/36kbkk4f. More information and sources are provided below, see “Developments on investigating and reporting pushbacks”. AlJazeera, Egyptians accused in Pylos shipwreck case deny smuggling, blame Greece, Months after the tragic disaster that killed hundreds at sea, nine accused men languishing in prison insist they are innocent, 12 February 2024, available here. FRONTEX, Final Serious Incident (Si) Report, Sir 12595/2023, 1 December 2023, available here. To date, 62 survivors in total have filed 6 criminal complaints and 2 relatives have filed 1 criminal complaint. GCR et al., Joint Press Release, 40 survivors of the Pylos shipwreck file a criminal complaint before the Naval Court of Piraeus, 14 September 2023, available here. Ibid., “The survivors, represented by the Network for Refugee and Migrant Rights, the Hellenic League for Human Rights (HLHR), the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR), the Initiative of Lawyers and Jurists for the shipwreck of Pylos, and Refugee Support Aegean (RSA), denounce a series of violations of the Greek authorities' obligations to protect the lives of those on board and demand an effective investigation into the circumstances of the deadliest shipwreck to occur in the Mediterranean in recent years”. 37