Greece: perhaps "hundreds" of dead in the sinking of a migrant boat

June 15, 2023

Greece continues Thursday its search for possible survivors the day after the capsizing of a boat overloaded with migrants, a deadly shipwreck which could have left “hundreds” dead.

Seventy-eight bodies have so far been found at sea off the coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, according to the coast guard.

But 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 indicated 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, thus interrupting the electoral campaign in view of the legislative elections of 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 in six languages this simple word: “Shame!”.

Pope Francis, very sensitive to the theme of migration, said he was “deeply dismayed” by this shipwreck.

In the port of Kalamata (southwest) where the survivors were transported, “it’s really horrible”, assured AFP Erasmia Roumana, a UNHCR employee. The survivors are “in a very bad psychological situation (…) Many are in a state of shock, they are overwhelmed”.

The port police were looking among the survivors for possible smugglers.

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,” said the coast guard spokeswoman, 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 two 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 20 people remain hospitalized in Kalamata, according to the same source.

“They mostly suffer from pneumonia, dehydration, hypothermia,” Manolis Makaris, director of the cardiology department at Kalamata hospital, told the radio.

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 did not intervene because the passengers “refused any help”.

Frontex did not provide comment. But his boss Hans Leijtens went to Kalamata to establish “the role” of the European Border Surveillance Agency in this “horrible” 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.

“People on board a drifting boat are not asked if they want help (…), immediate help should have been needed,” Nikos Spanos, international maritime incident expert, 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 on its way or not”, added Jérôme Tubiana, of Doctors without borders (MSF) on the French public radio France Culture.

According to the Greek authorities, the migrants had left Libya and were heading for Italy.

The boat’s engine failed shortly before 2300 GMT on Tuesday and the vessel capsized in the deepest waters of the Mediterranean, 47 nautical miles (87 km) from Pylos in the Ionian Sea, Siakantaris said, sinking in 10 15 minutes away.

According to several officials, the survivors did not have life jackets.

The survivors are temporarily housed in a warehouse in the port of Kalamata.

The bodies of victims have been transferred to the cemetery of Schisto, in the western suburbs of Athens where an autopsy will take place, according to public television.