what we know about the tragedy that left at least 78 dead and “hundreds” missing

A drama that raises questions about European migration policy. After the sinking, overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday, of a boat carrying several hundred exiles off the Peloponnese peninsula, 78 bodies were recovered, according to a provisional report. The Greek authorities continued the search, Thursday, June 15. Interim Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas has declared three days of mourning in the country.

“It could be the worst maritime tragedy in recent years in Greece”said Stella Nanou, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), on the public television channel ERT. This tragedy once again provoked the indignation of NGOs. Here’s what we know about the conditions of the sinking and the questions it raises.

A balance sheet that could still increase

The shipwreck occurred overnight from Tuesday to Wednesday southwest of the Greek peninsula, 47 nautical miles (about 87 kilometers from Pylos. Since then, 78 bodies have been found at sea, according to the Greek Coast Guard, which had The death toll, already the heaviest since June 2016 and the disappearance of at least 320 people, could still change.According to the Greek Coast Guard, the boat was carrying “hundreds” of migrants. “The ship was 25 to 30 meters long. The deck was packed, and we think the interior was too”Coast Guard spokesman Nikolaos Alexiou told ERT television.

“We don’t know how many people were inside, but we do know that it is usual for smugglers to lock them in, in order to maintain control on board,” abounded a government spokesman, Ilias Siakantari. According to the Greek authorities, people present on the fishing boat assured that they were at least 750 on board, including a hundred children.

Finally, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported on Twitter of the “initial counts” reporting 400 passengers.

So far, the rescue operation that began Wednesday morning has rescued a total of 104 people, according to local authorities. Greek television channels showed the images of survivors, gray blankets on their shoulders and hygienic masks on their faces, descending from a yacht that came to rescue them at sea, as required by maritime law. Others were evacuated on stretchers. In addition to port police patrol boats, a Greek navy frigate, an air force plane and helicopter as well as six boats that were sailing in the area took part in this rescue operation.

A boat spotted by Frontex on Tuesday afternoon

The tragedy occurred shortly after an engine failure that occurred in the middle of the night, according to the spokesman for the Greek government. After capsizing in the deepest waters of the Mediterranean, the fishing boat sank in about fifteen minutes. According to the Coast Guard, no one on board was wearing a life jacket. A requirement of smugglers who intend to fill the ships as much as possible, to the detriment of safety.

The boat had been spotted on Tuesday afternoon by a plane from Frontex, the European border surveillance agency. “It’s really shocking to hear that Frontex flew over the boat and there was no intervention because the boat refused any help”Jérôme Tubiana protested on franceinfo on Wednesday, responsible for migration advocacy for the NGO Doctors Without Borders. “An overloaded boat is a boat in distress, so there is no question of its condition or its ability to continue on its way”he explained.

According to a previous press release from the Greek port authorities, at the time of this first contact with the overloaded boat, the people on board had “refused all help”.

A more dangerous route taken to bypass Greece

The wrecked ship had sailed from Libya bound for Italy, according to Athens, via the central Mediterranean. A longer route, which has seen a resurgence in traffic in recent months, according to The worldwhich draws on data from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.

Guest of France Inter, Louise Guillaumat, deputy director of operations of SOS Méditerranée, said to observe “since the beginning of the year in the central Mediterranean an explosion in the number of departures [de bateaux de migrants] from all the coast of Libya and Tunisia”. “We have more than 1,000 visible deaths since the beginning of the year, that is to say the bodies that we can count”which means that “the figures are far below the reality”she says.

If Greece is a usual passage for many of those who seek to reach Europe, particularly from nearby Turkey. However, for several months, migrants have been trying to avoid Greece, even if it means taking much more dangerous sea routes. Frontex “has already been pinned down, particularly in this area, for having organized with Greece completely illegal refoulements of asylum seekers to Turkey”recalled Wednesday Jérôme Tubiana.

In a report revealed by the media in July 2022, the European Anti-Fraud Office implicated the Greek coast guard, accused of practicing “push back”, a technique for the illegal return of migrants to Turkey, operated under cover of the European agency Frontex, to discourage them from entering European soil. More recently, in May, the New York Times published a video and testimonies accusing the Greek authorities of turning back migrants, including children.

NGOs urge States to act

Louise Guillaumat pleaded Thursday morning on France Inter for the creation of a “European search and rescue force for immediate deployment in the Mediterranean”. For Florence Rigal, president of the NGO Doctors of the World and guest Thursday morning on franceinfo, it is the whole organization of rescue at sea that must be strengthened in the Mediterranean. “We are calling for a real policy of rescue at sea, supported by the Statesshe said. We leave rescue at sea to associations, civil society organizations to which we multiply the obstacles”she denounced.

In particular, she wants Frontex to engage in rescue at sea. “It is all the States which must mobilize to put boats on the spot. In any case, people move”, she says. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “deeply saddened” and assured in a tweet that EU member states should “continue to work together, with (…) third countries, to avoid such tragedies”.