A ship carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean early Wednesday. Hundreds are believed to have died.
Hundreds are believed to have drowned when a ship carrying migrants sank in the Mediterranean on Wednesday, news agencies say. If the estimates of the number of drowned people are correct, it will be the worst accident in the Mediterranean since 2015. The spokeswoman for the Mediterranean region of the International Organization for Migration said about it Flavio Di Giacomo on Twitter.
A ship transporting people from Libya to Italy sank early Wednesday about 80 kilometers from the Greek coast.
According to the Greek authorities, there are at least 78 dead and 104 rescued. Rescue workers continued the search on Thursday, but no new survivors have been reported since Wednesday. According to the authorities, the sunken ship cannot be raised, as it sank in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean.
Probably hundreds of people on board
The authorities do not have exact information on how many people were on board the sunken ship. Those who were rescued have said that there would have been up to 750 people on board the 20-30 meter ship. Based on initial information, the UN’s International Organization for Migration estimates that there were around 400 people on board.
Save the Children, an international organization focusing on children’s rights, said that those who survived the accident said that there would have been about a hundred children in the ship’s hold.
– The EU countries have done everything to close all routes for children and families to seek safety in Europe. Often the only possibility is a dangerous sea journey, said the representative of the organization Daniel Gorevan according to news agency Reuters.
the BBC according to the doctor who treated people rescued from the sea at the hospital in Kalamata, he had heard from his patient that there were a hundred children in the hold. The reporter of the Greek channel ANT1 received the same information in an interview.
All those saved so far are men.
Help was offered to the ship
The Greek Coast Guard initially approached the vessel already on Tuesday evening. The ship seemed to be loaded with too many people and its passage had become difficult. According to the Greek authorities, the ship was offered help several times, but it was not accepted. The ship’s crew informed the authorities that they would continue on their way to Italy.
– In such a situation, you have to act very carefully, comments the spokesperson of the Greek Coast Guard Nikos Alexiou For the Greek public broadcaster ERT.
– A ship with that many people cannot be turned by force without any kind of cooperation.
In recent years, Greece’s conservative government has tightened its attitude towards migrants. Greece has turned migrant boats back out to sea and confined migrants to fenced camps.
Alarm Phone, an organization that helps with rescue operations in the Mediterranean, said that it had already received emergency calls from the ship carrying the migrants on Tuesday. Those on board asked for help and said that the captain of the ship had escaped in a small boat.
Aerial photos of the ship carrying the migrants taken on Tuesday show that there were dozens of people on the ship’s deck, some of whom were reaching up towards the helicopter filming the ship.
Greece declared three days of mourning for the victims of the accident. The bodies have been taken to a cemetery near Athens for DNA tests.
Greece is one of the main routes for migrants to Europe
The accident in Greece highlights the importance of the EU’s common migration agreement, comments the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez According to Reuters.
The agreement would divide the immigrants coming to Europe among the member countries so that the immigrants would no longer be concentrated in the countries along the Mediterranean coast. Spain intends to complete the agreement during its presidency this year.
Greece is one of the main routes for migrants to Europe. Many ships carrying migrants leave from Libya, where the transport is carried out by people smugglers who work mainly for the armed groups that control the Libyan coast.
The UN has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean since 2014. The Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world.
Source: AP, Reuters