As the search for possible survivors continued on Thursday, nine Egyptians suspected of being smugglers were arrested in Greece, after the sinking of a migrant boat off the Greek coast which could have left hundreds dead. A port source told Agence France-Presse that among those arrested was the captain of the boat which capsized before sinking, killing at least 78 people, according to an official report.
According to this source, the fishing boat had left Egypt empty before embarking migrants in Tobruk, a port city in eastern Libya, and had set sail for Italy. The suspects arrested in Kalamata, the port on the Peloponnese peninsula where the survivors were taken, are suspected of "illegal trafficking" in human beings, according to the Greek agency ANA.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it "fears that hundreds more people" have drowned "in one of the most devastating tragedies in the Mediterranean in a decade". Greek government spokesman Ilias Siakantaris said on Wednesday that unconfirmed reports put 750 people on board the trawler.
Two patrol boats, a navy frigate, three helicopters and nine other ships continued to survey the waters west of the Peloponnese coast, one of the deepest areas in the Mediterranean. The Greek Supreme Court has also ordered an investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy that has shocked Greece, accused for years of turning back migrants seeking asylum in the EU. A three-day national mourning was declared, interrupting the electoral campaign in view of the legislative ballot on June 25.
But some newspapers did not hide their anger at this new tragedy affecting migrants. The center-left daily Efsyn thus displayed in one and six languages this simple word: “Shame! ". In Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece's second city, some 5,000 people took to the streets, police said, carrying slogans such as "The government and the European Union are killing" and "No to Fortress Europe." Solidarity with Refugees”.
In the port of Kalamata, "it's really horrible," Erasmia Roumana, a UNHCR worker, told AFP. The survivors are “in a very bad psychological situation […] Many are in shock, they are overwhelmed”. One hundred and four people have been rescued and should soon be transferred to a reception center for migrants in Malakasa, northeast of Athens.
The survivors "are all men," the Coast Guard spokeswoman said, raising fears that women and children, who usually also board these boats, are among the missing. These survivors are mostly Syrians (47), Egyptians (43), as well as 12 Pakistanis and 2 Palestinians, according to the Greek authorities.
A survivor also told doctors at Kalamata hospital that he had seen around 100 children in the hold of the boat, according to public broadcaster ERT. More than twenty people remain hospitalized in Kalamata, according to the same source.
An image released by the Coast Guard showed a blue trawler, 25-30m long, and obviously in poor condition overloaded with people gathered on the deck from bow to stern and even on the roof of the gangway. According to the Greek port authorities, a surveillance plane from the European agency Frontex had spotted the boat on Tuesday afternoon, but help did not intervene, because the passengers "refused any help". Frontex did not provide comment. But his boss Hans Leijtens traveled to Kalamata to establish "the role" of the European Border Guard Agency in this "horrific" sinking.
"People on board a drifting boat are not asked if they want help […], immediate help should have been needed," international maritime incident expert Nikos Spanos told ERT. "The question does not arise whether the boat refuses help [...] An overloaded boat is a boat in distress, there is no question of its condition or its ability to continue its course or not “, added Jérôme Tubiana, of Doctors without borders (MSF) on the French public radio France Culture.
The boat capsized 47 nautical miles (87 km) from Pylos in the Ionian Sea, Siakantaris said, sinking in ten to fifteen minutes. According to several officials, the survivors did not have life jackets.
