Fisherman forced to steer migrants’ boat through rough seas jailed for 280 years
A fisherman accused of helping to steer a rusty vessel packed with migrants from Egypt to Greece has been sentenced to 280 years in prison after being found guilty of people-smuggling.
The Egyptian man, named as H Elfallah, had faced an even more draconian punishment – a jail term of 4,760 years, based on 10 years for every migrant he had allegedly helped bring to Europe.
The 45-year-old was one of nearly 500 migrants on board the former fishing boat in November last year when it sailed across the Mediterranean.
Mr Elfallah and his 15-year-old son had hoped to reach Greece and then the UK, where another son is applying for asylum.
After the dilapidated vessel started drifting helplessly in rough seas and strong winds, it was rescued by a Greek coastguard patrol boat, which towed it to the port of Paleochora, in Crete.
Police arrested seven of the migrants, accusing them of helping to steer the battered vessel.
One of them was Mr Elfallah.
Accused of smuggling 476 people, he faced a maximum sentence of 4,760 years under a Greek law introduced in 2014.
He was found guilty at a trial in Crete earlier this week, but the court “took into account his reasons” for helping to steer the ship and gave him a lesser sentence of “only” 280 years in jail.
'Outrageous criminalisation'
Human rights groups have condemned his conviction as outrageous, saying he was forced to use his sailing skills because of the conditions.
They said it was common for professional traffickers to entrust the job of navigation to migrants, so that the smugglers themselves did not have to be on board and risk arrest once they arrived in Europe.
“We strongly condemn this outrageous criminalisation of people on the move,” said a spokesman for Borderline Europe, a human rights organisation supporting migrants and refugees.
“How on earth do European authorities believe that people can come in a boat without someone piloting it?”
The fisherman could not afford the thousands of euros that traffickers charge for passage across the Mediterranean.
“In exchange for a cheaper price, he and his son agreed to do some chores,” said the Borderline Europe spokesman.
During the voyage, those chores extended to helping steer the large vessel travel towards Crete.
Mr Elfallah had been made a scapegoat and unfairly treated like a criminal, said the humanitarian organisation.
Heavy prison sentences
This is just the latest case of a migrant being given a heavy prison sentence for helping to steer a boat or dinghy towards Europe while claiming either that they were forced to or did so reluctantly.
Hanad Abdi Mohammad, a Somali, was accused of smuggling and sentenced to 142 years in jail after arriving in Greece in 2020. He said he was compelled to do so after a smuggler threatened him with a gun.
Two Afghans who said they helped steer their vessel after traffickers abandoned them in the Aegean between Turkey and Greece were given 50-year prison terms after being found guilty of smuggling.
“Our prisons are full of asylum seekers who drove a boat,” Dimitris Choulis, a Greek human rights lawyer, told the Associated Press. “This is absurd.”
