Athens, Jun. 16, (dpa/GNA) – The Greek coastguard arrested nine survivors of the migrant boat disaster on suspicion of people smuggling, as hope of finding the hundreds still missing faded.
The men, who come from Egypt, have been accused of forming a criminal organization, reported state radio ERT on Thursday evening. They are suspected of having organized the transport of the migrants on the boat that went down off Greece, for which survivors said they paid between €5,000 ($5,457) and €6,000 each.
They are to be brought before the public prosecutor of the port city of Kalamata, who will then decide their fate.
The fishing boat carrying hundreds of people capsized in the Mediterranean near the Peloponnese peninsula on Wednesday. As many as 500 people are feared dead in one of Europe’s worst migrant disasters.
Media reports have quoted some survivors as saying that around 100 children were in the hold at the bottom of the vessel when it sank.
The authorities were still questioning survivors on Thursday evening.
According to investigators’ latest findings, the fishing boat had started from Egypt a few days ago, then made a stop in Tobruk, Libya, to pick up more people. Afterwards, the smugglers allegedly set sail for Italy.
Relatives of the missing people arrived in the port of Kalamata on Thursday from other European countries. They were trying to learn about the fate of their relatives from the authorities and other survivors, said reporters on the scene.
Many of the survivors were also reportedly at the port showing cell phone photos of the victims to rescue workers, mostly without success.
Greek authorities said Thursday they had given up hope of finding more survivors.
The 104 survivors were being brought to a refugee camp near Athens on Thursday and Friday.
Around 26 of them were being treated in hospital, mainly for hypothermia, authorities said.
The transfer of the dead to Athens also began on Thursday, ERT reported.
DNA samples are to be taken to identify the 78 bodies recovered so far.
Search efforts went on through Wednesday night and continued on Thursday, but to no avail.
“Neither survivors nor further victims were discovered during the night,” a spokesman for the Greek coastguard told state radio.
He said it is assumed that the people below deck were unable to save themselves when the boat sank.
Greek officials put the presumed number of fatalities at more than 500 but say they will never be certain. The figures are based on information from survivors as well as estimates from the coastguard as to how many people were crammed onto the vessel.
Media reports have quoted some survivors as saying more than 700 could have been on board.
The rusty, 30-metre-long fishing boat seems to have dragged most of the victims down with it.
The incident happened around 50 nautical miles south-west of the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, right by the so-called Calypso Deep, which reaches about 5 kilometres to the seabed and is the deepest point in the Mediterranean Sea. This means that recovering the wreck is as good as impossible.
Both coastguard officials and passing freighters radioed to help, the Greek coastguard said.
However, passengers refused the offer, saying they wanted to reach Italy, according to the Greeks.
As the boat was in international waters, the Greek coastguard could only intervene when it got into distress and capsized.
According to media, panic broke out on board when the vessel’s engines failed. The overcrowded fishing boat then listed, capsized and sank immediately. Survivors said many of the passengers could not swim, and few wore life jackets.
Most of the people on board were from Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, authorities said.
The EU border protection agency Frontex had also been alerted of the boat in distress. Executive director Hans Leijtens told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that his colleagues had discovered the boat on Tuesday and reported it to the authorities.
Leijtens himself flew directly to Greece to clarify what exactly had happened. He said however, that his agency could not perform miracles and that it was very difficult to save everyone in need. The Frontex head also shifted the focus onto preventing migrants from leaving their countries in the first place.
In Greece, people were shocked by one of the worst maritime disasters in recent years.
Demonstrations were held in the capital Athens and in the port city of Thessaloniki.
“The EU is killing people,” protest banners read.
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and several left-wing student and trade union organizations had called for the protests.
Internationally, however, condolences only poured in slowly. Pope Francis expressed his sympathies in a letter on Thursday, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and UN chief António Guterres expressed their shock on Wednesday.
On Thursday evening, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz also expressed his dismay: “This is depressing and calls on all of us once again to do everything we can to prevent people from choosing these dangerous escape routes,” the German leader said in Berlin. He called for a common system of solidarity to better deal with migration in Europe.
EU states had agreed on migration reforms only a week ago, with measures that largely tightened asylum policy.
GNA