On June 14, 2023, a vessel carrying hundreds of people capsized off Pylos, near the Greek peninsula of Peloponnese. Up to 600 people were killed, while only 82 bodies have been found so far. The 104 survivors have been detained in a closed camp and, replicating a pattern of criminalisation of migration and fabrication of legal categories, nine of them have been accused of smuggling, negligent manslaughter, exposing lives to danger, causing a shipwreck and human trafficking.
In the weeks following the shipwreck, together with members of the Feminist Autonomous Centre for research and participants of the Feminist No Borders Summer School: Abolitionist Care, members of de:border co-drafted and signed this statement—‘Abolishing Borders, Ending Violence, Transforming Justice’.
Almost one year after the shipwreck, on 21 May 2024, the Pylos 9 will be tried before the three-member Appeal Court of Kalamata. In resistance against the criminalisation of movement, we echo the demands made by the Pylos 9 campaign, part of the Captain Support Network, that the Pylos 9 be immediately released, that the charges against them be dropped, and that an independent and effective investigation be carried out into the circumstances of the shipwreck in order to determine the responsibilities and involvement of the Greek authorities and Frontex.