Nine survivors from a migrant boat that sank were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of smuggling as hope faded for hundreds of missing passengers and attention turned to Greece’s failure to act before the overcrowded ship capsized.
The trawler might have carried as many as 750 passengers, including women and children who were likely trapped in the hold as the vessel overturned and went down early on Wednesday.
That could make the sinking one of the deadliest ever in the Mediterranean Sea.
Photo: Reuters
A huge search-and-rescue operation initially recovered 78 bodies and picked up 104 survivors — all men and boys.
Greek authorities were criticized for not acting to rescue the migrants, despite a coast guard vessel escorting the trawler for hours and watching helplessly as it sank in minutes.
Greek officials said that the migrants repeatedly refused assistance and insisted on continuing to Italy. Legal experts said that was no excuse.
The Greek coast guard said late on Thursday that it had arrested nine survivors on suspicion of belonging to the smuggling ring that arranged the voyage.
The suspects were all Egyptians, State-run ERT Television said, adding that the ship left an Egyptian port for the area of Tobruk in eastern Libya, where it picked up the migrants.
Relatives of the migrants — who each paid thousands of US dollars for passage on the battered vessel — gathered in Greece’s southern port city of Kalamata to look for their loved ones.
Kassem Abu Zeed said he caught the first flight from Germany to Greece after realizing that his wife and brother-in-law were aboard the trawler.
“The last time we spoke was eight days ago, and [my wife] told me that she was getting ready to get on the boat,” Abu Zeed said.
“She had paid US$5,000” to smugglers. “And then we all know what happened,” he said.
Abu Zeed, a 34-year-old Syrian refugee living in Hamburg, said that Esra Aoun, 21, and her 19-year-old brother, Abdullah, risked the dangerous crossing from Libya to Italy after they failed to find a legal way to join him in Germany.
The chances are low that Abu Zeed’s wife survived the sinking about 75km offshore. None of those rescued were women.
Abu Zeed said he hopes Abdullah might be among the men from Syria, Egypt, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories who are being temporarily housed in a Kalamata warehouse or recuperating in hospitals from hypothermia and exposure.
The chances of finding more survivors “are minimal,” retired Greek coast guard admiral Nikos Spanos told ERT.
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