Eurokinissi/Portal
On June 14, 2023, migrants arrive at the port of Kalamata in Greece.
CNN –
At least 79 people died after a refugee boat carrying hundreds of people sank off the Greek coast in the early hours of Wednesday, the country’s coastguard said, as fears grew that there could be more fatalities.
A total of 104 migrants who were on the boat have since been rescued from the water and taken to the city of Kalamata.
“All the men who were rescued reportedly ranged in age from 16 to 41,” Kalamata Mayor Thanasis Vasilopoulos said on Wednesday. “They also said there were women and children on board,” he added.
The Coast Guard said the search and rescue operation would cease once it was dark in the area and would resume at dawn tomorrow.
It’s unclear how many people were on board the ship when it went down. Survivors say there could have been as many as 750 passengers.
N/A/The Coast Guard – Greece
The Hellenic Coast Guard released photos taken of the boat on Tuesday before it sank on Wednesday.
“We fear that the number of dead will increase significantly,” said a spokesman for the Peloponnese prefect Panagiotis Nikas.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) previously tweeted that it believed there were “up to 400 people” on board.
UN chief Antonio Guterres tweeted that the shipwreck was “terrifying,” adding, “As I said, every human being who seeks a better life deserves safety and dignity.”
The state broadcaster ERT, citing initial information from the authorities, said the boat had set off from Tobruk in Libya.
The NGO Alarm Phone said it received a call from the boat for the first time on Tuesday afternoon and that it was “difficult to communicate with those in distress” who said they could not survive the night.
www.argolikeseidhseis.gr/AP
After a rescue operation in the port of the city of Kalamata, survivors arrive by yacht.
Stelios Misinas/Portal
People rest in an emergency shelter after a rescue operation after their boat capsized in the open sea.
According to Alarm Phone, passengers on board said the captain abandoned the ship three hours after the first distress call and the passengers needed food and water.
A merchant ship is said to have supplied the boat with water around 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday evening.
The last time Alarm Phone was able to contact the boat was just before 1 a.m. local time on Wednesday morning. According to Alarm Phone, all they could hear was “Hello my friend… The ship you’re sending…” before the call dropped.
Search and rescue operations are conducted by the Coast Guard in international waters, 47 nautical miles off the coast of Pylos in the southwest Peloponnese.
According to Greek authorities, the destination of the boat was Italy.
www.argolikeseidhseis.gr/AP
Survivors receive first aid.
Greek President Katernina Sakellaropoulou visited some of the survivors on Wednesday. “We are shocked, we are shocked like everyone in Greece,” Vasilopoulus said.
Greece is at the heart of Europe’s refugee crisis, offering a route to the European Union for migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The number of undocumented migrants arriving by sea on European shores has skyrocketed this year due to conflict, global inequality and the climate crisis.
Check out this interactive content on CNN.com
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 36,000 people arrived in the Mediterranean region of Europe from January to March this year, almost double the number for the same period in 2022.
That’s the highest number since the refugee crisis, which peaked in 2015 and early 2016 – during some of the fiercest fighting in the Syrian civil war – when the arrival of more than a million people to Europe’s shores caused EU solidarity to falter and border chaos collapsed.