The head of the Central Committee of the KKE, Dimitris Koutsoubas, in an interview with the Star, on Friday night, he highlighted the political responsibilities of the EU and governments for the great tragedy off Pylos.

He spoke of the EU’s “tragic choices” and cited the Dublin Treaty as an example “which traps people in the first host country, which is Greece”.

“This whole situation, drowning in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, entering prison structures, concentration camps in essence, not having the right procedure for asylum and refugees based on the Geneva Convention is due to “Dublin II “mainly, it is due to the policy embraced and implemented by all the governments in our country” he stressed.

He said that the KKE has called for the EU-Turkey joint statement to be scrapped “which essentially gave Turkey the right to use the refugees as a tool and push them to cross with the sapiocaravas and human souls are lost in the Aegean and then to be trapped in these structures without getting asylum etc”.

“The KKE had said from the beginning, now we are told that the ministers, the governments are fighting it, that an immediate question and veto should have been raised in this case for the following: All these refugees who were in Turkey should remain there and with it is the responsibility of both the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the EU to process asylum and travel documents there,” he underlined.

“We saw people exhausted in the port of Kalamata, in the structures built by the municipality, with terror in their eyes when they looked at you. And their testimonies as they searched for their wife, their child.” With these words, D. Koutsoubas answered the question “what shocked him the most, what he saw in the first hours” as he immediately went to Kalamata as soon as the shipwreck with many deaths became known.

“This can be over. All of us don’t want people to drown, they could stay in their countries, they themselves want to stay in their countries. But from there they are forced and they leave because of the wars, the interventions, the difficult situation that prevails and they are forced and take their flocks to drown in the waters of the Mediterranean” said D. Koutsoumbas.

He added that the entire Greek people, all of Europe, the whole world were shocked, noting that from the information that the KKE echelon had and based on the testimonies, the assessments of the competent authorities, and what they saw from the Frontex helicopters and from the floating boats, whole families were traveling, while in total the passengers must have been around 750, while only 104 people were saved.

D. Koutsoumbas raised questions about “whether the dangerousness of the situation on the ship was properly and accurately assessed” and “if all the appropriate actions were taken based on the international convention for the protection of human life at sea”.

Finally, regarding the elections, D. Koutsoubas invited “those they voted for the KKE to do it again and not to abstain”, and those who “thought of voting for KKE in the previous polls but did not vote for KKE now so that 100% popular opposition inside and outside the Parliament is possible”.