CNN –
According to EU Interior Commissioner Ylva Johansson, the sinking of a packed refugee boat off the coast of Greece could be “the worst tragedy of all time” in the Mediterranean.
Dozens of people were killed and hundreds more were missing when the boat bound for Italy from the coastal city of Tobruk in Libya capsized off the coast of Greece earlier this week. The true damage of the disaster has yet to be determined.
“We do not yet have all the information about what happened, but it seems that this is the worst tragedy we have ever experienced in the Mediterranean,” she told a news conference in Brussels on Friday.
The tragedy has highlighted the EU refugee crisis, with tens of thousands of migrants risking dangerous routes to Europe every year fleeing war, persecution, climate change and poverty.
Johansson denounced the role of “smugglers” in getting people onto the boats. “They don’t send them to Europe, they send them to their deaths. That’s what they’re doing and it’s absolutely necessary to prevent it,” she said.
“Unfortunately, we saw this coming because since the beginning of the year there has been a new pattern of departures of these fishing boats from the eastern part of Libya… and we’ve seen a 600% increase in these departures this year,” she added, stressing the need to “find different ways to fight the smugglers and save lives”.
“When it comes to fighting the smugglers, we cannot rely on just one path. We have to use intelligence information – we have to conduct joint police investigations together with the countries of origin, the countries of transit and the countries of origin,” she said.
Other global organizations such as the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for “urgent and decisive action” to prevent further deaths in the Mediterranean and stressed “the duty to rescue those in distress at sea without delay”. .”
The Greek authorities have been criticized for their handling of the disaster.
On Friday, they denied claims the boat capsized after the Coast Guard attempted to tow it ashore.
Authorities initially said the Coast Guard was keeping their distance, but their help was “refused” after they threw a rope onto the ship to “stabilize it and see if it needed help”.
Tarek Aldroobi, who had three relatives on board, told CNN they saw Greek authorities towing the ship with ropes but said they were tied in the “wrong places” – which caused the ship to capsize.
“Their boat was in good condition and the Greek Navy tried to tow them onto the beach but the ropes were tied in the wrong places,” Aldroobi said. “When the Greek Navy tried to tow her, the boat capsized.”
Speaking to Greek state broadcaster ERT, government spokesman Ilias Siakanderis said the coastguard arrived two hours before the boat capsized after its engine failed and there was “no connection” between the two.
“The engine broke down at 1:40 a.m. and at 2:00 a.m. it sank – so there can be no connection between (the Coast Guard’s approach to the boat and the time of its sinking),” he told ERT.
The Greek Coast Guard also defended their reaction.
“When the boat capsized, we weren’t even next to the boat. How could we tow it?” Nikos Alexiou, a spokesman for the Coast Guard, told CNN.
Alexiou said their patrol boat only used a small rope for stabilization while it was near the refugee boat and they were unable to tow the fishing boat.
“Our patrol boat couldn’t tow the fishing boat,” he said.
According to Alexiou, the Coast Guard had observed the boat at close range, but not a mooring distance, as they approached after a warning that the migrant boat’s engine had failed.
“Unfortunately there was a movement of people, a shift in weight probably caused by panic and the boat capsized. As soon as we got there, we started our rescue operation to collect those who were in the water,” he explained.
The NGO Alarm Phone, meanwhile, claimed that the Coast Guard knew hours before the boat capsized that the boat was in distress.
The Coast Guard said this week it repeatedly asked the boat if it needed assistance and was told it didn’t. Authorities also previously said they could not intervene on the boat without help for assistance as the boat is in international waters.