The Greek government will have to pay €80,000 to the family of a Syrian migrant who died after being shot by personnel from the country's coastguard. The ruling was handed down by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which has thus brought to a close a case dating back ten years.

The tragedy in the Dodecanese on 22 September 2014

It was 22 September 2014 when the tragedy occurred. The scene was the sea near the island of Pserimos, a small strip of land in the Dodecanese, not far from the coast of Turkey. A check on a group of migrants had led, according to the seven judges who convicted Greece, to the use of force that Athens was unable to show had been "absolutely necessary".

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Arrêt Alkhatib et autres c. Grèce - usage de la force non absolument nécessaire au sens de l’article 2 de la Convention
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That day, a rubber dinghy carrying migrants had approached Greek territorial waters. The vessel, piloted by two Turkish people smugglers, had rammed the coastguard patrol boat more than once. Thirteen pistol shots were fired from the patrol boat in the direction of the dinghy's engine. Two migrants were wounded: they were both Syrian nationals, one of whom was struck in the head. He would die after a long agony at the end of 2015.

A Greek inquiry had been closed

"The fact that the military personnel had seen only the pilot of the dinghy does not in any way relieve them of the obligation to check whether passengers were on board," the ECHR stressed. This is also because, again according to the judges, it was easily foreseeable that the dinghy was carrying migrants attempting to reach Europe from Turkey. It is equally evident, the ruling continues, "that the thirteen shots fired had clearly exposed the passengers to risk." The operation, therefore, "was not conducted in a manner that minimised the use of force and the dangers to the safety of persons."

It should be noted that Greece had opened an inquiry following the events, but had closed the case with a dismissal in 2015. According to the ECHR, however, the investigation conducted by the Athens authorities "contained numerous shortcomings that led in particular to the loss of evidence."

Greece already convicted in 2022 over the deaths of eleven migrants

The same Court had previously convicted the European nation over issues relating to migrants: in July 2022, it had in particular awarded compensation of €330,000 to sixteen applicants whose vessel had capsized in the Aegean Sea in January 2014. Eleven people, including eight children, died in the shipwreck, which was caused by a coastguard patrol boat that had passed at high speed close to the boat.