Greece continued its search for survivors on Thursday, a day after a boat carrying migrants capsized. The fatal shipwreck may have caused “hundreds” of deaths.
Seventy-eight bodies have so far been found in the sea off the Peloponnese peninsula, according to the Coast Guard.
But the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it feared hundreds more had drowned “in one of the worst tragedies in the Mediterranean in a decade”.
Greek government spokesman Ilias Siakantaris said on Wednesday that unconfirmed reports indicated that 750 people were on board the trawler.
Two patrol boats, a naval warship, three helicopters and nine ships continued to survey the waters west of the Peloponnese coast, one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean.
Greece’s Supreme Court has ordered an investigation into the causes of the tragedy that has shocked Greece, which has been accused of turning back migrants seeking asylum in the European Union for years.
A three-day national mourning was declared, thus interrupting the election campaign ahead of the assembly vote on June 25.
But some newspapers did not hide their anger at this new tragedy affecting immigrants. The center-left daily Efsyn thus showed this simple word in one and six languages: “Shame!”.
Pope Francis, who is very sensitive to the theme of immigration, said he was “deeply appalled” by the shipwreck.
“in shock”
“It’s very brutal,” UNHCR staffer Erasmia Rumana told AFP at the port of Kalamada (southwest) where the survivors were taken. The survivors are “in a very bad psychological situation (…) many are in shock, they are overwhelmed”.
The port police were looking for smugglers among the fugitives.
One hundred and four people have been rescued and will soon be transferred to a reception center for migrants in Malagasa, northeast of Athens.
The survivors were “all men,” a Coast Guard spokesman said, raising fears that women and children who usually board these boats were among the missing.
The survivors are mostly Syrians (47), Egyptians (43), as well as 12 Pakistanis and two Palestinians, according to Greek officials.
According to public broadcaster ERT, the survivor told doctors at Kalamata Hospital that she saw about 100 children on the boat.
According to the same source, more than 20 people are in hospital in Kalamata.
“They often suffer from pneumonia, dehydration, hypothermia,” Manolis Makaris, director of the cardiology department at Kalamata Hospital, told the radio.
A picture released by the Coast Guard showed a 25-30m long blue tugboat, apparently in poor condition with people overloaded, on deck from bow to stern and even on the roof of the gangway.
According to Greek port authorities, a surveillance plane from the European company Frontex spotted the boat on Tuesday afternoon but did not intervene as the passengers “refused any assistance”.
Frontex did not comment. But his boss, Hans Leijdens, went to Kalamata to establish the “part” of the European Border Guard in this “terrible” shipwreck.
The Dutchman stressed that he was trying to “better understand what happened because Frontex played a role” in this new drama in the Mediterranean.
Parties of Libya
“The people on the drifting boat were not asked if they wanted help (…), immediate help should have been needed,” international maritime incident expert Nikos Spanos told ERT.
“There is no question of whether the boat refuses help (…) an overloaded boat is a boat in distress, there is no question of its condition or ability to continue on its way”, added Dr Jerome Dubiana. France Culture on French Public Radio Without Borders (MSF).
According to Greek authorities, the migrants left Libya and went to Italy.
At 11:00 pm GMT (01:00 am Swiss) on Tuesday, the boat’s engine failed and the vessel overturned in the deep waters of the Mediterranean Sea, 47 nautical miles (87 km) from Pylos in the Ionian Sea, Siakantharis said. It sinks in 10 to 15 minutes.
According to several officials, the survivors did not have life jackets.
Survivors are temporarily housed in a warehouse at Kalamata port.
The bodies of the victims were moved to the cemetery of Shisto, on the western outskirts of Athens, where autopsies will be held, public television said.
This article was published automatically. Sources: ats / afp