Red Sea survivors accuse Egyptian authorities of cover up
Survivors of the Red Sea dive-boat sinking have accused Egyptian authorities of a cover-up after they were pressured to sign official statements and liability waivers in Arabic.
The liability waivers were to ensure the survivors did not accuse the boat operators of criminal wrongdoing.
The Sea Story was a luxury dive-boat that set off from Egypt’s Red Sea Coast on November 24th before capsizing on November 25th, leaving four dead and seven people missing, presumed dead.
The BBC reported on January 15th that survivors of the boat disaster have accused boat operators of multiple safety failings on board the vessel, including no food or water supplies on life vessels and no batteries in the lights of the life jackets.
The survivors said within hours of being brought ashore they were subjected to “an interrogation”. Their statements were then “translated into Arabic by an employee of the company that owned the Sea Story”, a clear conflict of interest.
Frøydis Adamson, a survivor, said she had “no clue” what her translated Arabic statement said: “they could have written anything”.
Those that managed to translate their statements on their phones told the BBC that “key, damning details which they had conveyed verbally were left out,” with local Egyptian authorities telling survivors, “the only one responsible for this is the sea”.
Deceptive documents presented to survivors as ‘clearance papers’ to get through Egyptian checkpoints – in place of their passports which had been lost at sea – also had the same liability waiver which they were asked to sign in their witness statements.
Last year, Maritime Survey International, an independent consultancy, produced a report on the safety of dive boats in the Red Sea and concluded that “not a single vessel was safe… the dive boat industry in Egypt “plies its trade largely unregulated”.
It appears however, in this case, that the Egyptian authorities are attempting to sweep this under the carpet to “protect their tourism industry”, reported by the BBC.
Survivors and family members of the deceased are calling for an open investigation into the capsize.
BBC
