Dead Calm: Killing in the Med? TV review — the migrant boat disaster that became a Greek tragedy

On June 18 2023, officials in Greece announced that an estimated 500 people trying to migrate to Italy had probably died at sea after their ship capsized off the coast of Messenia a few days earlier. Yet the wall-to-wall coverage of another unfolding maritime crisis — the OceanGate submersible, which disappeared en route to the wreck of the Titanic — meant that one of the worst migrant boat disasters in modern history was comparatively under-reported in the days that followed.

One year on, an outstanding BBC documentary serves to refocus attention on this harrowing incident. Despite the glib title, Dead Calm: Killing in the Med? is a rigorous piece of investigative filmmaking that combines forensic journalism with empathy. More than just an account of what happened, it represents a bold, evidence-based challenge to statements released by the Greek authorities in the aftermath.

While the Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) observed that the boat, the Adriana, had suddenly overturned due to “commotion” on the deck, another disturbing narrative has since emerged. First-hand accounts and court documents suggest that the vessel may have sunk following efforts by a Greek special forces patrol to tow it outside the country’s maritime jurisdiction, and that search-and-rescue responses were delayed and inadequate. Of the estimated 750 refugees who were on board, only 104 are known to have survived. Most were transported to land on a superyacht passing nearby — desperation and privilege tragically juxtaposed.

At the heart of the film are the distressing testimonies of Mohamed and Abdelrahman, two Syrian asylum seekers who were on the overcrowded, dilapidated Adriana and vividly recall the hellish conditions aboard. While the film holds traffickers accountable for putting the passengers in such danger in the first place, the survivors are also unequivocal about the involvement of a Greek patrol boat in capsizing them. Their recollections of having their ship towed, and then being left in the sea by the coast guards, are consistent with other accounts but robustly denied by the HCG. (The HCG also claim that the cameras on their boat were not working.)

Not only does the documentary make a case that this disaster was preventable, but it argues that the Adriana crisis was symptomatic of what is described by the New York Times journalist Matina Stevis-Gridneff as “long-term, verified systematic abuse of asylum seekers at [Greece’s] borders”. At one point, for instance, we follow the activist Fayad Mulla as he captures footage of what appear to be people being illegally taken back out to sea by Greek coast guards. The same people from the video were later found in a dinghy near Turkey.

Despite allegations linking them to 43 migrant deaths between 2020 and 2023, the HCG tells the BBC that it denies “the incident [filmed by Mulla] is part of any wider policy” and “strongly reject[s] all accusations of illegal activities”. Dimitris Baltakos, a former head of special operations with the coast guard interviewed here, refuses to speculate that the footage depicts what Mulla alleges. Even so, moments later, Baltakos turns to an off-camera colleague and in Greek asks “I haven’t told them too much?” before proceeding to tell that person, still in Greek, that what he saw was “clearly illegal” and evidence of “an international crime”.

It is a revealing scene in a film that brings a rare immediacy to the migrant crisis. But of course this is not solely a Greek issue, or even an EU one. When the phrase “stop the boats” has become campaign rhetoric in the UK, the film asks us to think carefully about what that entails. It reminds us that such perilous cross-sea migrations are not just a political problem but a human tragedy.

★★★★★

On BBC2 on June 17 at 9pm and available to stream on iPlayer