2023-06-15 18:32:50
A few months after the sinking of Summer Love off the Italian coast, which had killed 94 people at the end of February, a new tragedy hit the Mediterranean on Wednesday. A fishing boat overloaded with migrants capsized in the south-west of the Greece, precipitating the drowning of 78 people. What happened ? What are the reactions? 20 Minutes make the point.
What happened at the time of the sinking?
On Tuesday afternoon, a fishing boat carrying “hundreds” of migrants was spotted by a plane from Frontex, the European Border Surveillance Agency. But the migrants on board “refused any help”, according to a statement from the Greek port authorities. Hours later, the overloaded vessel capsized in international waters off Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula. According to initial information from the authorities, the shipwrecked boat had sailed from Libya bound forItaly.
The coastguards specified that at the time of the tragedy, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, 47 nautical miles from Pylos, in the Ionian Sea, none of the people on board the fishing boat was equipped with a life vest. rescue. A vast operation of rescue was triggered on Wednesday morning, saving 104 people. In addition to the port police patrol boats, a frigate from the Greek navy, an airplane and a helicopter from the air force as well as six boats which sailed in the area took part in this rescue operation.
How is the drama handled in Greece?
The rescued castaways were taken to the port of Kalamata, where four people were also hospitalized. The President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, was to go there on Wednesday. Greece will also observe three days of national mourningannounced the services of the interim Prime Minister, Ioannis Sarmas.
The latter, in office until the legislative elections scheduled for June 25, is “in communication with the competent authorities” and “is constantly informed” of the evolution of the situation, according to his services. Sign of the union around this drama, the former Prime Minister conservative, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who during his four years at the head of the government has led a very tough policy on migration, has decided to cancel an electoral rally scheduled for the end of the day in Patras, the major port of this region of Peloponnese , announced his New Democracy (ND) party.
What are the reactions internationally?
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was “deeply saddened” and assured in a tweet that EU member states should “continue to work together, with (…) third countries, to avoid such tragedies”. THE pape François, very sensitive to the theme of migration, is “deeply dismayed” by the sinking, reports the Vaticanand “sends its sincere prayers for the many migrants who have died, their loved ones and all those who have been traumatized by this tragedy”.
In France, Marine Le Pen was one of the first to speak out about the sinking. “This appalling drama is a drama that comes after many other dramas and which, if we do not stop this policy, will precede many other dramas,” predicted the head of the deputies of the National Rally on franceinfo. Denouncing a “suction pump”, she regretted that the hope “to arrive in Europe and to be regularized” could “encourage the taking of a considerable risk which is that of dying at sea”. For the one who advocates a drastic reduction in immigration to France, it is necessary to “feed”, “treat”, “hydrate” the migrants on board these boats then “bring them back to their port of departure”.
#sinking #migrant #boat #killed #people