Rescue employees transferred the our bodies of useless migrants to refrigerated vehicles as a serious search continued Thursday for attainable survivors of a sea catastrophe in southern Greece.
Hundreds of persons are nonetheless feared lacking.
At least 78 our bodies have been recovered after a fishing boat filled with migrants looking for to make it from Libya to Italy capsized and sank a day earlier in deep waters off the Greek coast.
Rescuers saved 104 passengers — together with Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians, principally males and together with eight minors — however authorities worry that a whole bunch of others could have been trapped beneath deck. If confirmed, that will make the tragedy one of many worst ever recorded within the central Mediterranean.
Authorities revised the confirmed dying toll from 79 following an in a single day depend of the our bodies.
“The survivors are in a really troublesome scenario. Right now they’re in shock,” Erasmia Roumana, head of a United Nations Refugee Agency delegation, advised The Associated Press after assembly the rescued migrants in a storage hangar within the southern port of Kalamata.
“They wish to get in contact with their households to inform them they’re OK, and so they hold asking concerning the lacking. Many have mates and relations unaccounted for.”
Greece declared three days of mourning and politicians suspended campaigning for a normal election on June 25.
A Supreme Court prosecutor ordered an investigation into the circumstances of the deaths.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, mentioned she was “deeply saddened” by the tragedy and promised to strengthen cooperation between the European Union and close by international locations to attempt to additional crack down on migrant smugglers.
But human rights teams argue that the crackdown means migrants and refugees are being pressured to take longer and extra harmful routes to achieve secure international locations.
The search operation south of Greece’s Peloponnese area didn’t find any extra our bodies or survivors in a single day or early Thursday.
“The probabilities of discovering (extra survivors) are minimal,” retired Greek coast guard admiral Nikos Spanos advised state-run ERT tv.
“We have seen previous fishing boats like this earlier than from Libya: They are about 100 ft lengthy and may carry 600-700 individuals when crammed full. But they aren’t in any respect seaworthy. To put it merely, they’re floating coffins.”
Coast guard specialists imagine the boat could have sunk after working out of gasoline or struggling engine hassle, with motion of passengers contained in the vessel inflicting it to checklist and finally capsize.
An aerial {photograph} of the vessel earlier than it sank launched by Greek authorities confirmed individuals crammed on the deck. Most weren’t carrying life jackets.
“We are witnessing one of many greatest tragedies within the Mediterranean, and the numbers introduced by the authorities are devastating,” mentioned Gianluca Rocco, head of the Greek part of IOM, the U.N. migration company.
The IOM has recorded greater than 21,000 deaths and disappearances within the central Mediterranean since 2014.
Greece’s coast guard mentioned it was notified by Italian authorities of the trawler’s presence in worldwide waters.
It mentioned efforts by its personal ships and service provider vessels to help the boat had been repeatedly rejected, with individuals on board insisting they wished to proceed to Italy.
Twenty-nine of the survivors in southern Greece stay hospitalized, principally with signs of hypothermia, whereas eight have been questioned by coast guard investigators. Government officers mentioned the survivors can be moved to a migrant shelter close to Athens later Thursday or Friday.
The our bodies of the useless migrants had been moved to a morgue outdoors Athens, the place DNA samples and facial pictures might be taken to start out the identification course of.
The embassies of the international locations concerned will help, well being officers mentioned.
The spot is near the deepest a part of the Mediterranean Sea, and depths of as much as 17,000 ft may hamper any effort to find a sunken vessel.
The IOM mentioned preliminary reviews instructed as much as 400 individuals had been aboard. A community of activists mentioned it acquired a misery name from a ship in the identical space whose passengers mentioned it carried 750 individuals.
The Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwreck in dwelling reminiscence occurred on April 18, 2015, when an overcrowded fishing boat collided off Libya with a freighter attempting to return to its rescue.
Only 28 individuals survived. Forensic specialists concluded that there have been initially 1,100 individuals on board.
