2023-06-15 00:54:00
And fishing boat loaded with migrants sailing to Europe sank this Wednesday in the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of Greece and at least 79 people died and many more were missing after one of the biggest tragedies of its kind so far this year, authorities said.
The Greek Coast Guard said that another 104 people had been rescued as part of an ongoing operation in a vast area of the sea involving Navy ships and Coast Guard boats, Army planes and helicopters, and even merchant and private ships, and which was to continue through the night.
It was unclear how many people might still be in the water or trapped on the ship, but initial estimates put several hundred on board.
He sinking occurred in international waters about 80 kilometers southwest of the Peloponnese peninsulain southern Greece, near one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea, the Greek Ministry of Migration and Coast Guard said.
The depths and strong winds were complicating the “extensive” rescue operation, according to the coast guard.
Four of those rescued were in serious condition and were transferred by helicopter to a hospital in the city of Kalamata, also in the southern Peloponnese.
In the port of Kalamata, survivors covered in gray blankets and wearing face masks descended from a yacht that had rescued them, Greek television channels showed.
Television also showed dozens of exhausted migrants sleeping on the floor of a large shed in the same city, inside sleeping bags or wrapped in blankets provided by paramedics and rescue teams.
A first aid tent was set up next to the shed.
‼️ A shipwreck occurred today off Pylos, Greece according to @HCoastGuard.
So far 104 survivors were brought to shore while 32 bodies were recovered. Search and rescue efforts continue and we fear more lives were lost.
Initial reports suggest up to 400 people were onboard. pic.twitter.com/7TBTWiHs84
— IOM – UN Migration ???????? (@UNmigration) June 14, 2023
The Coast Guard said that 79 bodies had already been recovered.
Among the survivors were 30 people from Egypt, 10 from Pakistan, 35 from Syria and two from Palestine, it added.
Everything indicates that the ship was bound for Italy and had sailed from North Africafrom the eastern Libyan city of Tobruk, according to Greek authorities, the AFP news agency reported.
Libya has been in chaos since a largely Islamist armed uprising supported by a NATO bombing campaign succeeded in ousting and assassinating its autocratic former leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The situation has been exploited by human smugglers who have made Libya the main departure point for migrants trying to reach Europe on smuggling boats, escaping conflict or poverty in Africa and Asia.
A surveillance plane of the European agency Frontex detected the boat on Tuesday afternoon, but the passengers “refused help”according to a statement from the Greek port authorities.
Greece has known numerous tragedies with boats, often dilapidated and overloaded, but it is the shipwreck that left the most victims off its coasts since another on June 3, 2016 in which at least 320 migrants died or disappeared.
It is also the second deadliest in the entire Mediterranean so far in 2023since 94 migrants drowned last February near the southern Italian city of Cuttro when the boat they had set sail from Turkey sank.
The greatest tragedy of its kind in living memory in the Mediterranean Sea took place on April 18, 2015, when a drifting fishing boat overflowing with migrants collided with a cargo ship coming to its rescue near the coast of Libya. .
Only 28 people survived, and forensic experts concluded that about 1,100 were on the sunken ship.
The migration route that goes from North Africa to Italy through the central Mediterranean is the deadliest in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN agency.
The OIM has recorded more than 17,000 deaths or disappearances there since 2014.
The UN body said initial reports suggested that around 400 people were on the ship that sank off the Peloponnese.
Also on Wednesday, a distressed sailing ship with about 80 migrants on board sailing off the coast of the Greek island of Crete was rescued and towed by coastguards to the port of Kaloi Limenes, off Libya, the Greek Port Police said.
Greece, Italy and Spain have been the main destinations for tens of thousands of people seeking to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
With a long maritime border, Greece is a regular crossing point for migrants from neighboring Turkey and faces increasing attempts to enter via routes near the Cyclades islands and into the Peloponnese to evade patrols in the Aegean Sea further north, the scene of numerous shipwrecks, often fatal.
In an electoral campaign with a view to the general elections on June 25, the former conservative prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis decided to cancel an electoral act scheduled for this Wednesday night in Patras, the large port of this region of Peloponnese, his New Democracy party announced. (N.D.).
On his side, the presidenta de la República, Katerina Sakellaropoulouwent to Kalamata to visit survivors of the shipwreck.
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