2023-06-16 05:45:01
In front of the turquoise neoclassical house, which houses the port police of Kalamata, Kassem Abo Zaid, 34, can no longer hold back his tears. “I haven’t slept for twenty-four hours, and I came as quickly as possible from Hamburg to have some news”, explains the Syrian refugee from Deraa. His wife, Ezra, 21, and brother-in-law, Abdullah, 19, had taken the blue trawler which sank overnight from Tuesday June 13 to Wednesday June 14 47 nautical miles (87 kilometers) from Pylos, in the Ionian Sea, when its final destination was Italy.
Thursday, June 15, for the second day in a row, two patrol boats, a helicopter and six other ships from the region continue their search west of the Peloponnese coast. But according to the rescuers, the chances of finding survivors are dwindling over the hours. On his mobile phone, Kassem reveals a photo where he holds his wife in his arms. “We were happy, I was happy to find her, but now I don’t know where she is. She is not among the survivors in the hospital or at the port, and I fear the worst…”, he comments, his voice hoarse. For this dangerous journey, his wife and his brother-in-law had paid 5,000 dollars (4,570 euros) each.
Around 100 people were rescued by the Greek Coast Guard. Seventy-nine bodies have been recovered, but hundreds of passengers are still wanted. Among the survivors, the Greek authorities counted a majority of Syrians (47), Egyptians (43) as well as twelve Pakistanis and two Palestinians.
“They send me photos of their children”
According to several corroborating sources, nearly a hundred children were traveling at the bottom of the hold of the ship with the women. At Kalamata hospital, Manolis Makaris, the doctor in charge since the night of the tragedy, is overwhelmed with emotion: “The migrants have given my contact to their families in Egypt, who call me for news. They send me pictures of their children. According to their accounts, there were up to 100 miners trapped in the lower deck of the boat. »
According to the testimonies of the survivors collected by the Greek authorities, the boat was carrying 750 people, and the sinking appears to be one of the worst tragedies to have occurred in Greek waters. The last drama of such magnitude dates back to June 2016 when nearly 320 refugees drowned off Crete.
Kassem gave the name of his wife and his brother-in-law to the coast guard, he gave them the most precise description possible to be able to find them quickly. The Red Cross, which has set up a telephone assistance service, must also help him in his research. “Given the number of people who were on this boat, the process may take time”, recognizes Antonietta Lanzarone, a medical examiner who works for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The expert explains that what can help “if the body is not decomposed, these are very precise descriptions made by relatives, small physical characteristics such as tattoos, scars, but also the objects they were carrying with them, the clothes they were wearing”. If the bodies are identified, a repatriation can be requested by the families.
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