It was August 2018 when the author and activist Dimitris Antoniou he was pressured to journey on the ferry line of Thassos trapped together with his wheelchair among the many parked automobiles, within the storage of an open kind ship.
The related picture had made the rounds of the Web on the time, bringing to the fore the blockades and the hazards that exist (additionally) when touring with sure sorts of ships.
Six years later, on the identical ferry line, related pictures, extremely offensive to human dignity, had been recorded. On June 15, a feminine passenger posted on Fb a photograph of a disabled baby and his mom remaining for the whole journey (about 45 minutes) within the ship’s storage because of the absence of a mechanism for transporting the wheelchair within the passenger lounge.
«Is there a worse feeling than that? Could the years go and the therapy of the state stays the identical inhumane and irrational” Dimitris Antoniou requested concerning the new incident, explaining that “within the Greece of 2024 there’s a regulation that claims that disabled folks and people who are aged, obese or injured who wish to journey by ferry will likely be hand-carried down the slim and steep stairs with a wheelchair, on the threat of their lives and naturally with out no dignity.”
Two-speed accessibility
In reality, the present laws gives for “two speeds” when it comes to the accessibility of ships for folks with disabilities, because the existence of an elevator, elevator or escalator is obligatory, because the ESAmeA reminds, “solely on vessels working voyages of greater than 30 nautical miles, successfully leaving a ‘loophole’ for vessels working to close by locations to be inaccessible”.
This exception primarily considerations open-type vessels that function on busy ferry routes, similar to Perama – Palukia, Keramoti – Thassos, Igoumenitsa – Corfu and Rio – Antirrio. Quite the opposite, in coastal transport that covers longer distances “there aren’t any issues when it comes to accessibility for folks with disabilities”, the president of the Affiliation of Passenger Delivery Companies explains to “Vima”. Dionysis Theodoratos.
Commenting on this distinction between short- and long-distance ships, the president of ESAmeA Ioannis Vardakastanis underlines that laws can not do half jobs.
“We should be certain that maritime transport in our nation, whether or not it’s a few miles or many, is accessible and secure for all on equal phrases” he emphasizes, including that “accessibility and security doesn’t solely imply having the ability to get out and in of the boat or gaining access to the bathroom and cabins, but in addition correct coaching of the workers.”
Training is ignored
Certainly, as early as 2018, within the aftermath of the incident with Dimitris Antoniou and as a consequence of frequent “complaints from folks with disabilities or diminished mobility and their family about indecent and humiliating conduct on the a part of crew members”, the Ministry of Delivery invited the ship-owning corporations to supply particular coaching to the crews with the help of the ESAmeA, with a deadline of June 1, 2019.
Nevertheless, in response to Ioannis Vardakastanis, one thing like this by no means occurred, because the Confederation has been known as upon to coach Coast Guard officers and employees within the nation’s main ports, however not sailors.
Switch “in hand”
In the identical 2018 round, the then Minister of Delivery Fotis Kouvelis known as on corporations whose ships are usually not required to hold elevators or elevators to have particular stretchers, with which crew members would carry disabled folks into the passenger lounge. He additionally reminded that, based mostly on Article 5 of Presidential Decree 44/2011 “underneath the grasp’s duty, a member/members of the crew are assigned the service of passengers with particular wants throughout their entry and dealing with on board”.
Within the case of the current incident in Thassos, because the spokesperson of the Coast Guard acknowledged in his televised intervention Nikos Alexiouthe crew really supplied to maneuver the obstructed particular person from the storage to the lounge “with the help of a particular seat-stretcher”, which – as he claimed – his mom refused.
Moderately, because the president of ESAmeA explains, “carrying a disabled particular person up shouldn’t be solely inconvenient, it is undignified. Individuals are not objects to be loaded and unloaded. Moreover, the crew members who’re known as upon to move persons are not educated, so they could make a mishandling and trigger an even bigger downside.”
In the direction of a brand new institutional framework
The struggling and dangers confronted by disabled folks when touring on ferry traces have been recognized for years, as evidenced by, amongst different issues, the related report within the Nationwide Motion Plan on the Rights of Individuals with Disabilities revealed in December 2020.
Nevertheless, only in the near past the Ministry of Delivery took the initiative to amend Presidential Decree 44/2011 with the intention, amongst different issues, of constructing extra sorts of ships accessible.
The required interventions are anticipated to be applied inside three years, with the ESAmeA underlining, nonetheless, that the brand new regulation is totally needed “to incorporate not solely the ships that perform voyages lower than 30 n.m. and open-type ferry boats, however all passenger/automobile ferries, no matter time of development, stage of development/conversion, size, variety of passengers”.
For now, the Confederation president seems pessimistic: “And within the proposed modification of the presidential decree, pursuits will finally prevail over rights” says Ioannis Vardakastanis. “I hope I am flawed.”
Coordination: Angelos Skordas
Written by: Giorgos Murmouris
Editor: Panagiotis Sotiris
#Twospeed #breaks #Calvary #disabled #offensive #pictures
