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 killed “hundreds” of people.
Seventy-eight bodies have so far been found at sea off the coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, according to the coast guards who have thus revised downwards a death toll of 79 announced the day before.
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 ordered an investigation to determine the causes of the tragedy that has shocked Greece, accused for years by NGOs and international media of turning back migrants seeking asylum in the EU.
A three-day national mourning was decreed, thus 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 centre-left daily Efsyn displayed in one and six languages this simple word: “Shame! “.
Pope Francis, very sensitive to the theme of migration, said he was “deeply dismayed” by this shipwreck.
” In a state of shock “
In the port of Kalamata, 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 shock, they are overwhelmed.”
So far, 104 people have been rescued and are expected to be transferred soon to a migrant reception center 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.
“We don’t know what was in the hold, but we know that smugglers are locking people up,” the government spokesman said on ERT on Wednesday.
A survivor also told doctors at Kalamata hospital that he had seen around 100 children in the hold of the boat, according to ERT.
More than 20 people remain hospitalized in Kalamata, the public channel said.
“They mostly suffer from pneumonia, dehydration, hypothermia,” Manolis Makaris, director of the cardiology department at Kalamata hospital, told Athens Municipal Radio.
An image released by the coastguard 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.
“The holds would be filled with children and women whose number was not specified,” noted Manolis Makaris, citing testimonies from survivors.
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.
Parties of Libya
“People on board a drifting boat are not asked if they want help […]it would have required imminent help, “said Nikos Spanos, international expert in maritime incidents, to ERT.
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 ship capsized in the deepest waters of the Mediterranean, 47 nautical miles (87 km) from Pylos in the Ionian Sea, Mr Siakantaris said, sinking in 10 to 15 minutes.
According to several officials, the survivors did not have life jackets.
The survivors are temporarily housed in a warehouse in the port of Kalamata in order to be identified by the authorities, who are looking for the smugglers.
Visibly in shock and tired, these survivors were lying or sitting on makeshift mattresses installed in this hangar and assisted by teams from the Red Cross in particular.
The bodies of victims were transferred to the cemetery of Schisto, in the western suburbs of Athens where an autopsy will take place, according to public television.