Greek officials were quick to blame smugglers, but experience tells us to be wary of instant and unequivocal explanations.
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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.
But 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.
We were told there was nothing that could have been done to save those onboard, including the estimated 100 women and children who were travelling in the hold of the Adriana.
But survivors then 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 and 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.
It is far too early to draw confident comparisons between 2023 and this latest case, but it may be useful to point out what has happened before where the coastguard has been present when migrants have died at sea.
As for Tuesday's fatal incident, near Chios, much of the Greek media has been amplifying the story that the migrant speedboat was manoeuvring dangerously and would not stop.
There has so far bee
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