Three bodies have been recovered during the search for survivors of the sinking of a migrant ship off the coast of Greece that killed at least 78 people, the Greek coastguard announced on Monday.
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The three bodies “were in an advanced state of decomposition” and it was impossible to determine their sex, said a spokeswoman for the coast guard.
They were fished out of the western Peloponnese peninsula, in the area where an old trawler carrying hundreds of migrants was wrecked on Wednesday morning, the spokeswoman told AFP.
When questioned, the coastguards were however unable to confirm that the three bodies recovered were those of migrants who perished in the sinking.
Only 104 people have been rescued so far, including 47 Syrians, 43 Egyptians, 12 Pakistanis and two Palestinians, according to a tally by Greek authorities on Wednesday.
Many relatives of migrants who were on board the wrecked boat have traveled to Greece in recent days in search of news of the victims.
More than 140 Syrians were on board and many of them are missing, relatives told AFP.
A right-wing candidate for the next legislative elections was expelled Friday evening from his party, New Democracy (ND of former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis) because of his remarks deemed racist after this shipwreck off Pylos (south) .
While deploring the “tragic” loss of migrants in Mediterranean waters, including “children”, the parliamentary candidate under the label ND Spilios Kriketos said Thursday that Greece “cannot tolerate more migrants” , accusing most of them of stealing, in an interview on YouTube channel Kontra.
These remarks caused an outcry. The main left-wing opposition party, Syriza, called them “a racist recital” and asked the ND to exclude Spilios Kriketos.
Experts and NGOs have questioned the Greek coast guards who should have intervened earlier and rescued the ship, according to them.
Media and NGOs have repeatedly accused Greece of carrying out “illegal” pushbacks of migrants in the Aegean Sea, criticisms however rejected by the government.
For the past four years, Prime Minister and New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has led a security crackdown, marked by border lockdowns, to fight what he sees as an “invasion” of migrants since neighboring Turkey, and a reinforcement of the police force.