In one of Europes deadliest shipping disasters in recent years, at least 79 migrants drowned and hundreds more were feared dead after their overloaded boat capsized and sank off the coast of Greece. The vessel, carrying an estimated 750 people, was en route to Italy from Libya.
The search for survivors was to continue through the night, with military aircraft deploying flares to light up the Mediterranean waters around the wreck site, about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of the southern Greek coastal town of Pylos. By midday, 104 people had been rescued. A media report said the boat left from Libya, and a shipping ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity said most were believed to be from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan.
Those rescued were taken to the port of Kalamata, near Pylos. Covered in blankets, they rested on mattresses at a warehouse shelter. The migration ministry was expected to move them to a camp outside Athens, the capital. The disaster comes amid heightened anxiety about the growing number of migrant deaths at sea, as many more boats head toward Europe from Libya as that North African country spirals into deeper chaos. The death toll rose to more than 1,600 after two other shipwrecks on Wednesday.
Rescue operations were aided by an Italian navy submarine that scoured the area with sonar. A merchant vessel also was assisting, and a cargo ship was scouring the area to see whether any bodies were stuck under the hull. The search operation was complicated by the fact that it is not clear how far the overcrowded boat was when it sank, and the water is dark.
A survivor told The Associated Press that the boat began to fill up with water after it left port in Libya. The passengers had paid smugglers for a trip to Italy. Some were women and children from Eritrea who had been promised families in Italy. “I can still hear their cries,” the survivor said.
The ramshackle wooden boat was among the latest in a string of recent tragedies, which have shocked European leaders and highlighted their failure to address a tidal wave of migrants. The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday warned that more than half a million people are now in the region, and urged member states to take steps to address the crisis, including setting up asylum centres and allowing more of those seeking sanctuary to be accepted into the EU.
Save the Children accused EU foreign ministers of “dithering as children die,” with a group of its representatives visiting Greece on Thursday to call for action now. The United States also has urged European leaders to boost patrols in the waters off Libya, and to crack down on human traffickers. A group of European countries, led by Spain, Germany and Italy, has called for a summit this weekend to discuss the issue. But in the meantime, the death toll will continue to rise as smugglers jam more and more desperate migrants into overcrowded and unfit vessels and send them out on the open seas.
