Aegean with the support of Pro Asyl, the Network of Social Support of Refugees and Immigrants, the Lawyers’ Group for the rights of Refugees and Immigrants and the Hellenic League for Human Rights. The case concerned the sinking of a fishing boat transporting 27 foreign nationals in the Aegean Sea in January 2014 off the island of Farmakonisi, resulting in the death of 11 people. According to the allegations of the applicants, the coastguard vessel was towing the fishing boat at very high speed in order to push the refugees back towards Turkish water, which caused the fishing boat to capsize, which the Greek Authorities denies. The Strasbourg Court found a violation of the right to life, both due to the authorities’ failure to investigate such a significant case responsibly and effectively, and on account of actions that they should and could have taken to protect human lives and prevent the tragic incident. The Court also held that Coast Guard officers had inflicted degrading and inhuman treatment against shipwreck survivors that night. The judgment of ECtHR ‘vindicates the victims by awarding compensation from the Greek State and brings to light an issue systematically concealed in public discourse: push backs and systematic deterrence practices which put lives at risk on a daily basis in Evros and the Aegean’.152 In October 2025, the ECtHR delivered a further landmark judgment in the case of F.M. v. Greece, which was represented by RSA, condemning Greece for a violation of Article 2 of the ECHR (right to life). The case concerned the 2018 Agathonisi shipwreck, which resulted in the drowning of sixteen refugees. The Court found that the Greek Coast Guard failed to carry out an adequate search and rescue operation, despite being promptly and repeatedly provided with the boat's precise coordinates by a relative on Samos island, leaving passengers unassisted at sea for hours. Furthermore, the ECtHR found the state's subsequent criminal investigation to have been ineffective and structurally non-independent, noting that the inquiry was conducted by bodies with clear hierarchical and institutional links to the suspects, ignoring critical voice message evidence, and featuring severely deficient forensic reports before being improperly shelved by the Piraeus Naval Court Prosecutor. 153 In May 2026, the Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal upheld an appeal lodged by the Greek Council for Refugees (GCR) against the dismissal of a criminal complaint concerning an October 2023 incident, where a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel rammed a boat carrying Syrian and Iranian refugees off Chios, resulting in one death and multiple serious injuries. Overturning the Naval Court Prosecutor's decision and rejecting the Coast Guard's official narrative, the Prosecutor of the Court of Appeal found "reasonable suspicions" that the vessel's commander intentionally rammed the refugees' boat while foreseeing and accepting the potential for death or grievous bodily harm. As a result, the Prosecutor of the Naval Court of Piraeus was ordered to initiate criminal prosecutions against the commander for homicide with eventual intent (dolus eventualis), grievous bodily harm, and multiple counts of dangerous bodily harm. As noted by GCR’s lawyers, “this case presents similar characteristics to the more recent case involving the ramming of a refugee boat off Chios in February 2026, which resulted in 15 deaths and many injuries, and for which an investigation into alleged criminal acts by the Coast Guard is ongoing”.154 In January 2025, Aegean Boat Report (ABR) published its annual report covering the year 2024, 155 according to which 1,639 boats carrying 48,761 people arrived on the Greek islands in 2024. According to the same report, in 2024, 2,367 boats carrying 62,924 people were stopped by the Turkish Coast Guard and Police. According to ABR:156 ‘[i]n 2024, Boats arriving has increased 13% compared to 2023, when 1.451 boats arrived, carrying 38.993 people. 14.482 people has been illegally pushed back by Greek authorities”. ABR further states that “in 2024, Aegean Boat Report have registered 508 pushback cases in the 152 153 154 155 156 Press Conference: Judgement from the European Court of Human Rights in Safi and Others v Greece (Farmakonisi), Written on 07/07/2022 with a short summary of the case, available at: https://bit.ly/3OzXBfA and GCR, Vindication by the ECHR for Farmakonisi: Press conference on Monday, 11 July 2022, available at: https://bit.ly/3q61nmD. RSA, ‘BREAKING – Justice Delivered: ECtHR condemns Greece for the 2018 Agathonisi refugee shipwreck’, 14 October 2025, available at: https://tinyurl.com/4mbkr639. GCR, ‘Order to initiate criminal prosecution for homicide with eventual intent against the commander of a Hellenic Coast Guard vessel’, 20 May 2026, available at: https://tinyurl.com/h8rurhkj. Aegean Boat Report, Annual Report 2024, available here. Ibid. 51