The death of 15 Afghan and Moroccan migrants after a speedboat carrying them collided with a Greek coastguard vessel has been presented by Greek authorities as an open and shut case.
A statement issued late on Tuesday blamed smugglers for failing to comply with the [Hellenic] Coast Guard's visual and audible signals to turn their boat around.
It said the migrant boat was making dangerous manoeuvres before veering into a patrol vessel off the Chios Strait. The message was that this caused the deaths and the injuries of 24 others who were trying to reach European soil.
However, experience tells us to be wary of such instant and unequivocal explanations.
In the summer of 2023, I arrived in the southern Greek port city of Kalamata on the day more than 650 migrants were feared to have drowned. Already, an official Greek narrative had been established that this was a tragedy caused by criminal gangs cramming too many people into an unseaworthy fishing boat.
Survivors later told the BBC that coastguards had caused the migrant boat to capsize following a botched attempt to tow it. As we returned to Greece to investigate over the following months, more contradictions appeared in the official account.
Nearly three years on, four senior figures in the Greek coastguard, including its current commander, are among 21 officers now facing criminal prosecution for negligent manslaughter over what was the worst loss of life in the Mediterranean Sea for a decade.
In relation to Tuesday's fatal incident, much of the Greek media has been amplifying the story that the migrant speedboat was manoeuvring dangerously and would not stop. However, there has been no testimony from the survivors to back up or question that account, and there is also a lack of independent, third-party evidence to support the scenario that the packed migrant boat had deliberately hit the specialist military speedboat.
Any video of the supposed collision could be hugely significant, but it remains unclear whether the coastguard was recording its interaction with the migrant boat.
Greece remains a key route for people from the Middle East and elsewhere wanting to reach the European Union. Nevertheless, human rights groups have consistently accused the Greek coastguard of pursuing dangerous and illegal policies at sea, although officials assert they act within the law.
Opposition politicians have condemned the latest incident, highlighting that Greek waters are becoming increasingly perilous for migrants. Many details about this incident are still unknown, and history suggests that we may never truly understand what happened in the darkness of the Mediterranean Sea.
