Outside the gates of the Port Authority of Kalamata on the shores of the Ionian Sea, the grief of the relatives or friends of the victims of the shipwreck off the Greek coast is palpable early Wednesday morning. Dozens of people are queuing again this Friday, hoping that when someone enters the building, someone will explain what has become of their relatives. Outside there is no one to take care of them. After the sinking of the fishing boat Adriana off the Greek coast, which is believed to have contained up to 750 people, only 78 bodies were recovered and 104 men were rescued. There is no sign of the rest, including children and women, in what the EU has already described as the worst refugee tragedy on the Mediterranean route. “I’m looking for my cousin,” says Syrian Ahmad T., in his mid-thirties, while waiting to enter the facility.
Family members wait at the entrance, in line or nearby, having asked for time to respect the order of arrival. Beginning early Thursday, shortly after news of the tragedy broke, Greek-speaking youth from Egypt came to the site to help Arab families with the bureaucracy related to the missing or deceased. Some of the migrants on the ship that left Libya for Italy are of this nationality, as are the nine detainees accused of human trafficking. Syrians and Pakistanis were also on the ship. The Egyptian volunteers stay until the last relative leaves, while qualified interpreters come and go to help with the procedures. Every now and then a Coast Guard officer comes out of the offices and ushers in people who are waiting on the street.
Once inside, those who can read Greek are allowed to see the long-awaited list of the names of the 104 rescued men, and a Coast Guard agent reads it to the others. A list that does not include women or children suspected of being in the ship’s hold. Relatives are cautioned that the spelling of the names may not be accurate as they were transcribed as pronounced by the survivors. They are all advised that the list is not public and are urged not to photograph or copy it. The Coast Guard urgently reiterates that it is not yet final – the search operation for possible survivors with boats and a helicopter will continue this Saturday in the waters southwest of the Peloponnese. Although hope is fading, no names have been added since Wednesday because the rescue operation has not found any survivors since then. For Ahmad T., who traveled to Greece from the UK, the wait ends with bad news: his cousin’s name is not among those who survived.
Officials are referring families to several names they believe may be misspelled, making identification difficult. Confusion and fear spread among family members. Ahmed Scepeen, a portly Egyptian, went to the Port Authority to look for his brother and was later greeted by an avalanche of wasps, who asked him to check dozens of names of relatives of friends or acquaintances. He didn’t find his brother on the list either. He has moved to Kalamata from Athens and is offering his old car to anyone who needs to go to the doctor, to court or to look for food.
After verifying the names, many begin to officially register their family member as missing. You will be asked for your full name, date of birth, parents’ names, a contact phone number and a recent photo. In addition, physical features are queried that can help to identify the person, such as piercings, tattoos, scars or prostheses. The file also says whether they wear glasses, the color of their eyes and hair, the names of their wives and children, what they look like and how many pounds they weigh. If they wear jewelry or watches. They are also asked to indicate whether they traveled alone or were accompanied by friends or relatives. Some were asked whether their relatives had brought pets with them and how they were dressed when boarding. Others are not asked for as many details. These proceedings end without the relatives receiving a document or reference number from the victims sought. “The name is,” they said to Said, a Syrian, when he asked about it.
Survivors of the shipwreck wait to be taken to a field near Athens in the port of Kalamata on Friday. John Liakos (Time News/AP/Lapresse)
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Tarek is one of those people who leave the building with a smile. He came from Italy with a group of Egyptians like him. When he saw the list, he immediately recognized his brother’s name. The lucky relatives on Thursday were able to greet their loved ones at the port, but since Friday morning the survivors have been in Malakasa, a refugee camp 50 kilometers from Athens. Tarek, with joy written all over his face, says driving there will be the least of his problems knowing his brother is alive.
In addition to the uniformed Coast Guards filling in the data, there are several plainclothes men overseeing the operation. One of them, a scrawny man with a graying beard and a friendly demeanor, is the police chief of the Civil Protection Unit, which is made up of officials from various Greek administrations. On Friday, he said Greece was following “international protocols” to extend the search to the countries of origin of those being searched. For example, family members traveling to Kalamata can provide their DNA to compare with potential victims. But channels are also being set up so that those who cannot travel to Greece can do so at the embassies closest to where they live.
DNA testing
The 78 bodies recovered have yet to be identified and are awaiting DNA testing. At the Port Authority, samples are taken from siblings or parents who are looking for one of their own, as other degrees of relationship may not be meaningful. The bodies are now lying in Sjistó, on the outskirts of Athens, in an industrial area, very close to another refugee camp. The law requires autopsied bodies to be in the morgue 40 days before burial. However, there is the exception of burying them earlier if the mortuary does not have enough space, which the Greek executive might request in this case due to the number of bodies.
For those still awaiting information from the victims, the Red Cross has set up two phone numbers that can be reached both from Greece and from abroad. However, there are complaints that such numbers are difficult to reach.
Despite the slowness of the process, Isa Krischke, who has been working in Greece for years in a local organization that supports families of missing migrants, explains that care for the relatives during the Adriana shipwreck works better than on previous occasions. “Pressure from the media is forcing the authorities to comply with the law,” he says. Krischke, who regularly oversees similar cases on the Greek islands, traveled to Kalamata as soon as he learned of the disaster. Since then he has received dozens of calls from distraught people who could not find out whether their loved ones are still alive.
The humanitarian laments that “although the law states that DNA tests can be sent from the country of origin,” the results rarely come in. And he adds: “Often in Greece, too, the bodies are buried without a DNA sample being taken.” It usually depends on an arbitrary decision by the coroner and is not done in cases that are not in the media carried out.”
In the case of the fishing boat Adriana, it’s not even possible to say exactly how many people are missing as it has sunk 4,000 meters in a deep ditch in the Mediterranean Sea. Hundreds of people in Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and Europe are waiting for Greece to publish the list to see if the name they are looking for is among those saved.
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