Huge search seeks survivors of migrant boat sinking off Greece
Kalamata, The Gulf Observer: With its human cargo of migrant filling every available space, the battered blue trawler was about halfway from Libya to Italy when its engine cut out in the night.
The vessel wobbled sharply, flooded and capsized. Less than 15 minutes later, it sank into one of the Mediterranean’s deepest points, off the coast of Greece. Hundreds of people are thought to have been on board when the boat went down Wednesday, although authorities have no precise figure.
Rescuers saved 104 passengers — including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians — and recovered 79 bodies. And the search went on early Thursday for more, with aircraft dropping flares to help search teams.
“It’s one of the biggest (such) operations ever in the Mediterranean,” Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV. “We won’t stop looking.”
The sinking could be one of the worst ever recorded on the feared central Mediterranean migration route, which is the world’s deadliest.
Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of the southern port city of Kalamata, where survivors were taken, said his information indicated there were “more than 500 people” on board.
The 25- to 30-meter (80- to 100-foot) boat is believed to have left the Tobruk area in Libya, which was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi. The instability allowed migrant smugglers to make Libya one of the main departure points for people seeking a better life in Europe.
Migration experts linked the sinking with the European Union’s failure to provide safe immigration alternatives for people fleeing conflict or hardship in the Middle East and Africa.
“We are witnessing one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean, and the numbers announced by the authorities are devastating,” said Gianluca Rocco, head of the Greek section of IOM, the U.N. migration agency.
“This situation reinforces the urgency for concrete, comprehensive action from states to save lives at sea and reduce perilous journeys by expanding safe and regular pathways to migration,” Rocco said.
The IOM has recorded more than 21,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014.
EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said the bloc has “a collective moral duty” to dismantle migrant smuggling networks.
Greece’s caretaker prime minister, Ioannis Sarmas, declared three days of national mourning.
Thirty survivors ranging in age from 16 to 49 were hospitalized with hypothermia or fever.
At the port of Kalamata, around 70 exhausted survivors bedded down in sleeping bags and blankets provided by rescuers in a large warehouse, while paramedics set up tents outside for anyone who needed first aid.
Rescue volunteer Constantinos Vlachonikolos said nearly all the survivors were men.
