Jan 25, 2024
In this episode, we speak with journalist Bashar Deeb from Lighthouse Reports about two investigations he worked on.
The first, called 'Frontex and the Pirate Ship', is a disturbing story of how the European Border and Coastguard Agency helped a notorious Libyan rebel group intercept a refugee boat in the Mediterranean.
The second, ‘Drowning in Lies’, exposes how Greece tried to cover up its role in the Pylos shipwreck by tampering with witness testimony.
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---Show Notes---
Check out Lighthouse Reports here: lighthousereports.com
And follow them on Twitter: @LHreports
Read Frontex and the Pirate Ship here: lighthousereports.com/investigation/frontex-and-the-pirate-ship/
Read Drowning in Lies here: lighthousereports.com/investigation/drowning-in-lies/
For more on Frontex, see episodes 50 and 23 of The Civil Fleet Podcast
Read The Civil Fleet's coverage of Frontex, here: thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/tag/Frontex/
Check out this 2021 report by Sea-Watch called ‘Crimes of the European Border and Coast Guard Agency Frontex in the Central Mediterranean Sea’ here: sea-watch.org/frontex_crimes/
For more on the Tariq Ben Zeyad unit, read this Amnesty International report: amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/12/libya-hold-commanders-of-tariq-ben-zeyad-armed-group-accountable-for-catalogue-of-horrors/
For more on the campaign group Refugees in Libya, check out episode 23 of The Civil Fleet Podcast
In early 2020, The Civil Fleet exposed how the EU planned to continue to support the Libyan Coastguard despite the bloc's concerns the government was violating the human rights of migrants and profiting from their detention: thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2020/02/21/eu-to-continue-supporting-the-libyan-coastguard-despite-its-fears-of-human-rights-abuses/
Read this interview with a Somali refugee held in a bogus ‘refugee camp’ in Libya: thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2020/03/09/they-lock-our-legs-together-with-a-chain-an-interview-with-a-slave/
For more on Libya, check out episode 15 of The Civil Fleet Podcast
Check out episode 33 of The Civil Fleet Podcast for more on the situation at the Lithuania-Belarus border
For more on Malta's floating prisons, read this: maltatoday.com.mt/comment/blogs/102694/illegal_floating_prisons__carla_camilleri
The UK is also holding people on the move on a floating prison, called the Bibby Stockholm. For more on that, see episodes 44 and 40 of The Civil Fleet Podcast.
It was the Maersk Etienne that rescued 27 people in 2020, which Malta refused to allow to come ashore. Listen to episode 18 and/or, read about it here: bit.ly/3HyJMHU
For more on Alarm Phone, listen to episodes 48, 5, and 3 of The Civil Fleet Podcast. Read about them here, too: thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/tag/Alarm-Phone/
Read about the Crotone shipwreck here: msf.org/italy-over-60-people-killed-crotone-shipwreck
Read about the Pylos shipwreck, here: thecivilfleet.wordpress.com/2023/06/16/shipwreck-survivors-say-greek-coasts-towed-their-boat-before-it-sank/
Ben was trying to paraphrase this quote by Robert Fisk at the end of the episode: Journalists rarely "move mountains or bring down regimes; instead, we just chip, chip, chip away at the rock face, hoping that someone notices — so that no one can say ‘we didn’t know’."