The death of 15 Afghan and Moroccan migrants after a speedboat carrying them collided with a Greek coastguard vessel has been presented by Greek authorities as an open and shut case.
A statement issued late on Tuesday blamed "smugglers" for "failing to comply with the [Hellenic] Coast Guard's visual and audible signals" to turn their boat around.
It said the migrant boat was making dangerous manoeuvres before veering into a patrol vessel, off the Chios Strait. The message was that this caused the deaths and the injuries of 24 others who were trying to reach European soil.
But experience tells us to be wary of such instant and unequivocal explanations.
In the summer of 2023, I arrived in the southern Greek port city of Kalamata on the day more than 650 migrants were feared to have drowned.
