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Dozens are dead and hundreds feared missing from migrant ship sinking off Greece

The Associated Press

This undated handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. AP hide caption

This undated handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece.

KALAMATA, Greece — Rescue workers transferred the bodies of dead migrants to refrigerated trucks as a major search continued Thursday for possible survivors of a sea disaster in southern Greece. Hundreds of people are still feared missing.

At least 78 bodies have been recovered after a fishing boat crammed with migrants seeking to make it from Libya to Italy capsized and sank a day earlier in deep waters off the Greek coast.

Rescuers saved 104 passengers — including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians — but authorities fear that hundreds of others may have been trapped below deck. If confirmed that would make the tragedy one of the worst ever recorded in the central Mediterranean.

Authorities revised the confirmed death toll from 79 following an overnight count of the bodies.

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"The survivors are in a very difficult situation. Right now they are in shock," Erasmia Roumana, head of a United Nations Refugee Agency delegation, told The Associated Press after meeting the rescued migrants in a storage hangar in the southern port of Kalamata.

"They want to get in touch with their families to tell them they are OK, and they keep asking about the missing. Many have friends and relatives unaccounted for."

Greece declared three days of mourning and politicians suspended campaigning for a general election on June 25.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said she was "deeply saddened" by the tragedy and promised to strengthen cooperation between the European Union and nearby countries to try to further crack down on migrant smugglers.

But human rights groups argue that the crackdown means migrants and refugees are being forced to take longer and more dangerous routes to reach safe countries.

The search operation south of Greece's Peloponnese region failed to locate any more bodies or survivors overnight or early Thursday.

A map shows the route that a fishing boat carrying migrants to Italy from Libya sank in the Mediterranean Wednesday. AP hide caption

A map shows the route that a fishing boat carrying migrants to Italy from Libya sank in the Mediterranean Wednesday.

"The chances of finding (more survivors) are minimal," retired Greek coast guard admiral Nikos Spanos told state-run ERT television.

"We have seen old fishing boats like this before from Libya: They are about 30 meters (100 feet) long and can carry 600-700 people when crammed full. But they are not at all seaworthy. To put it simply, they are floating coffins."

Coast guard experts believe the boat may have sunk after running out of fuel or suffering engine trouble, with movement of passengers inside the vessel causing it to list and ultimately capsize.

An aerial photograph of the vessel before it sank released by Greek authorities showed people crammed on the deck. Most were not wearing life jackets.

Migrants Continue To Die In Attempts To Cross Mediterranean Sea To Europe

"We are witnessing one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean, and the numbers announced by the authorities are devastating," said Gianluca Rocco, head of the Greek section of IOM, the U.N. migration agency.

The IOM has recorded more than 21,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014.

Greece's coast guard said it was notified by Italian authorities of the trawler's presence in international waters. It said efforts by its own ships and merchant vessels to assist the boat were repeatedly rejected, with people on board insisting they wanted to continue to Italy.

Twenty-nine of the survivors in southern Greece remain hospitalized, mostly with symptoms of hypothermia, while eight have been questioned by coast guard investigators. Government officials said the survivors would be moved to a migrant shelter near Athens later Thursday or Friday.

A survivors of a shipwreck washes his face outside a warehouse at the port in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150miles) southwest of Athens on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Thanassis Stavrakis/AP hide caption

A survivors of a shipwreck washes his face outside a warehouse at the port in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150miles) southwest of Athens on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.

The spot is close to the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea, and depths of up to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) could hamper any effort to locate a sunken vessel.

The IOM said initial reports suggested up to 400 people were aboard. A network of activists said it received a distress call from a boat in the same area whose passengers said it carried 750 people.

The Mediterranean's deadliest shipwreck in living memory occurred on April 18, 2015, when an overcrowded fishing boat collided off Libya with a freighter trying to come to its rescue. Only 28 people survived. Forensic experts concluded that there were originally 1,100 people on board.

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At least 79 drown, hundreds missing in migrant shipwreck off Greece

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• Boat believed to have left from Libya
• Captain reported to flee ship in small boat
• 'There were too many on the outer deck' -coast guard
• Estimates of number aboard range from 400 to 750

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Reporting by Stamos Prousalis in Kalamata, Karolina Tagaris, Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Maltezou in Athens, Gabrielle Tetrault-Farber in Geneva and Reuters Libya Newsroom; writing by Karolina Tagaris; editing by John Stonestreet, Mark Heinrich and Cynthia Osterman

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At least 79 killed and hundreds feared missing as migrant boat sinks off Greece

At least 79 migrants have drowned and hundreds more were missing and feared dead after their overloaded boat capsized and sank in open seas off Greece, in one of Europe's deadliest shipping disasters in recent years.

Key points:

• A shipping ministry official said most migrants were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan
• Greek's state broadcaster said the boat had set sail from a Libyan town and was headed to Italy

Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

As a painstaking search for survivors continued, a European rescue-support charity said it believed around 750 people were on board the 20- to 30-metre-long vessel when it sank early on Wednesday (local time).

The UN's migration agency estimated there were up to 400 passengers.

So far, 104 people have been rescued.

Coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV that it was impossible to accurately estimate the number of passengers.

He said it appeared that the vessel had capsized after people abruptly moved to one side.

"The outer deck was full of people, and we presume that the interior [of the vessel] would also have been full," he said.

"It looks as if there was a shift among the people who were crammed on board, and it capsized."

A media report said the boat left from Libya, and a shipping ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity said most of those on board were from Egypt, Syria and Pakistan.

Search and rescue operations were to continue through the night, with military aircraft deploying flares to light up the Mediterranean waters around the wreck site about 80 kilometres south-west of the southern Greek coastal town of Pylos.

Survivors were taken to the Greek port of Kalamata near Pylos.

Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of Kalamata, said the boat had sunk "very quickly".

"It  … was gone by the time the rescue helicopter got there," he said.

"The area where this happened has very deep water."

Covered in blankets, survivors rested on mattresses at a warehouse shelter, and the migration ministry was expected to move them to a camp outside Athens.

The shipwreck was the deadliest off Greece in several years.

In February, 96 people died when their wooden boat smashed into rocks on Italy's Calabrian coast during a storm .

Greece's caretaker administration, in power between an inconclusive election on May 21 and new elections on June 25, has declared three days of national mourning.

Greek coast guard says Migrants refused help

The Greek coast guard said the boat was first spotted late on Tuesday by EU border agency Frontex in international waters.

A Greek coast guard vessel then approached the boat, which was en route to Italy, and offered help.

The large number of migrants on its outer deck "refused assistance and stated their desire to continue their voyage", the coast guard said.

A few hours later the boat capsized and sank, triggering a search and rescue operation.

State broadcaster ERT said most of those on board were young men in their 20s.

Katerina Tsata, head of a Red Cross volunteer group in Kalamata, said the migrants had been given psychological support.

“They suffered a very heavy blow, both physical and mental,” she said.

Most cross over to Greek islands from nearby Turkey, but a growing number of boats also undertake a longer, more dangerous journey from Turkey to Italy via Greece.

Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, called on governments to work together on creating safe pathways for people fleeing poverty and war.

"Only sadness and anger after another deadly tragedy at sea in the Mediterranean," he wrote on Twitter.

Greece was at the frontline of Europe's 2015 migration crisis, when nearly 1 million people arrived on its islands from Turkey before heading north to wealthier European states.

Numbers have fallen dramatically since a 2016 deal struck between Brussels and Ankara to stem the flows, while the previous conservative government of Kyriakos Mitsotakis had said a tough policy — which included more border patrols and migrant camps under heavy surveillance — helped keep arrivals low.

About 72,000 refugees and migrants have arrived so far this year in Europe's frontline Mediterranean countries, according to United Nations data, with the majority landing in Italy and around 6,500 in Greece.

Nearly 1,000 people are estimated to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean this year, according to the UN.

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Greece boat disaster leaves at least 78 dead and hundreds missing

• Published 15 June 2023
• Europe migrant crisis

At least 78 people have died and more than 100 have been rescued after their fishing boat sank off southern Greece.

But survivors have suggested as many as 750 people may have been packed on to the boat, with reports of 100 children in the hold.

Greece says it is one of its biggest ever migrant tragedies, and has declared three days of mourning.

Authorities say their offers of aid were refused but they are facing claims of not doing enough to help.

The boat went down about 80km (50 miles) south-west of Pylos after 02:04 on Wednesday morning local time, according to the Greek coastguard, which lowered an earlier confirmed death toll of 79 to 78.

The EU's border agency Frontex said it had spotted the boat early on Tuesday afternoon and immediately told Greek and Italian authorities. The coastguard said later that no-one on board was wearing life jackets.

In a timeline provided by the coastguard, it said that initial contact was made with the fishing boat at 14:00 (11:00 GMT) and no request for help had been made.

It said the Greek shipping ministry had made repeated contact with the boat and was told repeatedly it simply wanted to sail on to Italy. A Maltese-flagged ship provided food and water at around 18:00, and another boat provided water three hours after that, it added.

Then at around 01:40 on Wednesday someone on the boat is said to have notified the Greek coastguard that the vessel's engine had malfunctioned.

Shortly afterwards, the boat capsized, taking only ten to fifteen minutes to sink completely. A search and rescue operation was triggered but complicated by strong winds.

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Watch: Survivors winched to safety after Greece boat disaster

Alarm Phone, an emergency helpline for migrants in trouble at sea, complained that the coastguard was "aware of the ship being in distress for hours before any help was sent", adding that authorities "had been informed by different sources" that the boat was in trouble.

It added that people may have been scared to encounter Greek authorities because they were aware of the country's "horrible and systematic pushback practices".

Jérôme Tubiana of Médecins Sans Frontières told French radio: "It's really shocking to hear that Frontex flew over the boat and no-one intervened because the boat refused all offers of help... an overloaded boat is a boat in distress."

The boat is thought to have been going from Libya to Italy, with most of those on board believed to be men in their 20s.

They had been travelling for days, according to local media reports, which added that the boat had been approached by a Maltese cargo ship on Tuesday afternoon that supplied food and water.

Survivors spoke of as many as 500 to 750 people on board and regional health director Yiannis Karvelis warned of an unprecedented tragedy: "The number of the people on board was much higher than the capacity that should be allowed for this boat."

One survivor told a hospital doctor in Kalamata that he had seen 100 children in the hold.

Coastguard Cpt Nikolaos Alexiou told public TV that the boat had sunk in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean.

The nationalities of the victims have not yet been announced.

Survivors have been taken to Kalamata, and many were treated in hospital for hypothermia or minor injuries.

Public broadcaster ERT said that three people suspected of being the traffickers had been taken to the central port authority in Kalamata and were being interrogated.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited some of those rescued and expressed her sorrow for those who had drowned.

Each year, hundreds of people die trying to cross the Mediterranean. In February, a boat carrying migrants capsized near Cutro, in the region of Calabria in southern Italy, killing at least 94 people - one of the deadliest incidents recorded.

Greek migration ministry official Yiorgos Michaelidis said Greece had repeatedly called for a "solid" EU migration policy "in order to accept people who are really in need and not just the people who have the money to pay the smugglers".

"Right now, the smugglers are the ones who decide who comes to Europe," he told the BBC.

"The case is for the EU to provide asylum, help and safety for those who are really in need. It's not a problem of Greece, Italy or Cyprus… The EU is the one that must conclude on a solid migration policy."

Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Last month the Greek government came under international criticism over video footage reportedly showing the forceful expulsion of migrants who were set adrift at sea.

More than 70,000 refugees and migrants have arrived in Europe's front-line countries this year, with the majority landing in Italy, according to UN data.

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The 11-hour anguished search for survivors of the shipwreck in Greece: ‘Ship sinking. We’re asking you to come to the rescue’

In the early hours of the morning of june 14, the captain of an oil tanker received a call to help save the trawler that sank 30 miles off the coast of greece. the sea had swallowed everything up. navigational data show contradictions in greece’s official account of events.

It was a clear, windless dawn, and the sea was as smooth as glass. The Rekon , a 122-meter Maltese-flagged tanker, was going about its route to the port of Haifa in Israel. Then the radio announced a distress call: “Ship sinking. Large number of people. Vessels in the vicinity are asked to proceed with search and rescue operations.” The officer immediately alerted the captain. It was June 14 at 2:12 a.m. local Greek time.

Captain Sait Bektasoglu, a 63-year-old Turk with four decades of experience at sea, ran to the bridge. “We changed our course immediately to the wreck site, we adjusted our radars for sensitivity, and I mobilized the crew,” he recalls. His account of 11 hours of fruitless searching is harrowing and rich in heretofore unknown details.

It took the Rekon an hour and 15 minutes to reach the coordinates it received, an area some 50 miles off the Greek coast. When it arrived, the luxury yacht Mayan Queen IV and two other cargo ships were already searching the water for survivors. The tanker then slowed down, turned on its search lights and its crew of 14 sailors began scanning the vast stretch of black water with binoculars. They didn’t see or hear anything. “It was as if nothing had happened,” recalls the captain. “There were no life jackets, no floats, no trace of oil, no trash, no floating material from the ship, nothing,” he recounts.

The Adriana , a ramshackle fishing boat of about 25 meters, had set sail for Italy with some 750 occupants on board. Women and children were crammed into the hold and many of the men were on deck. They were Syrian and Afghan refugees, Egyptians, Pakistanis and Palestinians. The Greek authorities had been aware of the ship’s presence since 11 a.m. on June 13 and, in addition to keeping it under surveillance, ordered two ships in the area to deliver food and water to those onboard. They never activated a rescue operation, despite the conditions in which the ship was sailing, not even when the ship’s engine broke down at 1:40 a.m. Between 2:04 a.m. and 2:19 a.m., the old metal fishing trawler jolted violently and then disappeared right before the eyes of the Greek coastguard. It is still not clear what happened, but the sea swallowed everything up.

Greece’s official version of events claims that the castaways refused any help and continued on their way to Italy. But navigation data contradicts that assertion. The coordinates of the distress call place the trawler just over a mile from its location at 7.30 p.m. when a first vessel approached it to supply it with food. In other words, in the seven hours between the delivery of supplies and when it sank, the Adriana was not approaching Italy as the Greek authorities claim ; the ship made practically no progress and moved just over a mile away towards its presumed destination.

While Bektasoglu was scanning the sea from the deck, between 3:00 and 4:00, a Greek patrol boat arrived and took command of the operation. The radio continued to instruct nearby vessels to approach the area. One passenger cruise ship, the Celebrity Beyond , “asked if it could lower its rescue boat and join the search, but was told no,” Bektasoglu explains. “There were already too many ships searching without detecting anything,” the captain theorizes. As many as eight large ships participated in the search for survivors. EL PAÍS unsuccessfully tried to contact them all.

The radio was constantly broadcasting messages to all the ships involved in the rescue. The Mayan Queen IV , a luxury yacht owned by a multimillionaire Mexican family, reported that it had already pulled a hundred or so castaways out of the water alive. “I don’t know how it sank at a depth of 4,500 meters, but I am sure that if this superyacht had not been there, the freighters could not have rescued more than two people each. The survivors were lucky to come across a ship that could rescue them and reunite over 100 people. A superyacht is much better equipped than the coast guard boats,” Bektasoglu explains.

“I couldn’t stand it,” Bektasoglu recounts. “I suggested that [the Turkish bulk carrier] ask the cruiser for help, but he was ordered to wait. [The Rusander ] kept asking for medical assistance for more than an hour, and again I recommended that he approach the cruiser for help. They ignored me in both Turkish and English,” the veteran sailor maintains.

The helicopter finally appeared as dawn was breaking. “It picked up the living and the lifeless bodies that were transferred to the Greek ship,” Bektasoglu explains. A new Greek patrol boat joined the operation. In all, 81 bodies were recovered.

The veteran captain, who had gone 11 hours without rescuing anyone, eating or sleeping, began to lose hope. “We did not experience a chaotic situation because there was nothing to be seen, there was no dramatic scene. The water was still like a mirror and after a few hours we lost morale,” he explains.

At 7:00 a.m. he asked for permission to continue his trip but was denied. A half an hour later, a military frigate arrived, took over command and gave the ships new coordinates to continue the search. “They sent me to two different places, I increased speed, arrived and searched,” he recounts. Again, the search was unsuccessful. Over the radio, he heard a freighter being ordered to “raise your boat, pick up the body and bring it to the Greek ship.” Other ships also used their lifeboats, while two helicopters flew overhead, he says.

The Turkish captain appreciates the measures the Greeks deployed, even though they only activated the search and rescue operation when the trawler was already sinking. “For several hours they deployed a plane, a patrol boat, two coast guard frigates, a rescue ship, three helicopters and a navy frigate; it’s a great effort,” he says.

At 8:30 a.m., Bektasoglu tried to leave again. He was in a hurry because he had to unload 5,200 tons of methyl tertiary butyl ether (a liquid that increases fuel efficiency) in Israel and then arrive in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, by June 20. He was not cleared to leave the operation until 11:45. As he left, he heard other ships being radioed to join the search. “I was tired, went to the bridge at 2.20 and couldn’t stop for lunch until after 12:00 the next day. I spent 11 hours on the search,” he recalls.

The captain learned what happened next from the press. He is frustrated that he didn’t find anyone to save. He also curses the human traffickers “who do business this way” and “buried” hundreds of people at a depth of 4,500 meters. He muses that “in a few centuries, when they find these bodies, they will serve as evidence for historians.”

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Greece imposes silence around shipwreck of overcrowded migrant boat

Activists criticize arrest of nine survivors of Greek shipwreck: ‘The real traffickers do not risk their lives on boats like this one’

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Greece shipwreck disaster exposes Europe’s deadly failure

Central Mediterranean migration route grows ever more perilous amid bickering and division over creating safe passages

The deaths of as many as 500 people feared drowned in the sinking of an overcrowded fishing boat off southern Greece have once more thrown a spotlight on the world’s deadliest migratory route – and Europe’s failure to tackle one of its greatest challenges.

Since the International Organization for Migration (IoM) launched its missing migrants project in 2014, an estimated 27,000 people trying to reach Europe have been recorded as dead or disappeared while trying to cross the Mediterranean.

More than 21,000 of those deaths have occurred on the so-called central Mediterranean route from Libya or Tunisia north to Greece or Italy, a crossing that can take several days and is often made in unseaworthy, dangerously overloaded boats.

Most migrants to Greece now cross from Turkey, either reaching the eastern Greek islands by boat or crossing the Evros River along the land border – and their number has fallen sharply since Athens stepped up sea patrols and built a border fence.

Because the trek up to western or northern Europe from Greece also involves an often arduous crossing of the Balkans, many migrants now seek to bypass Greece.

Instead, the vast majority now head for Italy, which has recorded 55,160 “irregular” arrivals in Europe so far this year – more than double the number in 2022 – mostly from Ivory Coast, Egypt, Guinea, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The central Mediterranean route is, meanwhile, becoming deadlier. According to an IoM report in April, at least 441 people drowned making the crossing between January and March this year, the deadliest three-month period since 2017.

A further 600 who attempted the crossing in April and May are known to be dead or missing, bringing the total this year to at least 1,039 before Wednesday’s deaths. The real figure, given that many sinkings are never recorded, is believed to be far higher.

The IoM has pointed the finger – although without naming names – at some Mediterranean governments, where state-led search and rescue (SAR) operations have been delayed and NGO-operated vessels obstructed.

Italy has imposed severe restrictions and even impounded humanitarian vessels, while Greece faces multiple allegations that it pushes people back to Turkey, illegally preventing them from claiming asylum, something Athens has consistently denied.

Overall, the number of people trying to reach Europe remains well down on its 2015-2016 peak, thanks in part to a 2016 EU deal with Turkey and a much-criticised 2017 arrangement with Libya that in effect outsources rescues to the Libyan coastguard.

But the number is climbing – and with anti-immigration sentiment and political pressure on the rise across the continent, the question remains one of the EU’s biggest problems, with member states profoundly divided.

Southern “frontline” states have long borne the brunt; wealthier northern “destination” states are often reluctant to share the burden; and hardline central and eastern ones (such as Hungary and Poland) have refused to accept any such refugees at all.

After years of bickering, EU leaders last week announced a breakthrough in negotiations for a new migration and asylum pact, including charges of €20,000 (£17,200) a head for member countries that refuse to host refugees.

The bloc agreed that member states, rather than the EU as a whole, would determine which countries were considered “safe” for migrants turned away because they were ineligible for asylum, giving member states greater individual flexibility.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has also said the bloc was considering providing more than €1bn (£850m) in aid for Tunisia to rescue state finances and help deal with its migration crisis.

Many critics, however, argue that little genuine progress has been made on creating safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to Europe, with too much recent emphasis on restricting asylum applications and criminalising SAR activities.

“Every lost life is a tragedy,” Maria Clara Martin, UNHCR’s representative in Greece, said on Thursday. “These deaths could have been avoided by creating more safe means of entry for people forced to flee conflicts and persecution.”

Gianluca Rocco, the IoM’s head of mission in Greece, said it was “urgent to have concrete and coordinated action from states to save lives at sea, and to reduce dangerous journeys by increasing safe and regular migration routes”.

The underlying causes pushing so many to come to Europe – war, natural disasters, the climate crisis, poverty, inequality and food insecurity – will not be going away anytime soon.

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What to Know About Greece’s Deadliest Migrant Shipwreck in Years

R escuers fanned out off the coast of Greece on Thursday after at least 78 people died when a fishing boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized off the southern Peloponnese in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

The fishing boat may have been carrying as many as 750 people, of which around 100 were children, according to survivors. Only 104 individuals have been rescued and taken to shelter as of Thursday and experts say it’s unlikely anyone else will be found alive.

Greek authorities cited the incident as one of the largest migrant tragedies ever recorded on the central Mediterranean migration route. The E.U.’s border agency, Frontex, spotted the boat Tuesday—which was packed with passengers who weren’t wearing life jackets—and alerted Greek and Italian authorities. Officials say the boat’s engine likely stopped working or ran out of fuel and began to veer off course before sinking at around 2 a.m. local time 50 miles south-west of Pylos, a town in southwestern Greece.

“It’s one of the biggest [search] operations ever in the Mediterranean,” Greek coastguard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV of the ongoing search effort, Al Jazeera reported . “We won’t stop looking,” he added. Overnight, six coastguard vessels, navy frigate, and other military transport were utilized in the rescue, but efforts have been hindered by strong winds.

Survivors were taken to the port city of Kalamata, where many are being treated for hypothermia and dehydration. Meanwhile, the bodies of the deceased have been moved to Athens where the identification process will begin with the help of relevant embassies.

As the search continues, here’s everything we know about the capsized boat.

What happened to the boat?

The boat, around 20 to 30 meters in length (65 ft. to 98 ft.)—as per aerial pictures released by the coast guard—was believed to be making its way from Libya to Italy carrying Egyptian, Syrian, Pakistani, Afghan, and Palestinian passengers, most of them young men. The boat had been traveling for a few days, according to local media.

The Greek coastguard provided a timeline of the boat’s movements, according to the BBC . Initial contact by the Greek shipping ministry was made with the boat at 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday and no request for help had been made. It was then approached by a Maltese cargo ship and supplied with food and water at around 6 p.m. At around 1:40 a.m on Wednesday, the coast guard was alerted by someone that the boat’s engine had malfunctioned and the boat was capsizing. It took around fifteen minutes for the boat to fully submerge.

Reuters reported that Alarm Phone, which operates a Europe-wide network supporting rescue operations, received alerts from people aboard the ship on late Tuesday. The volunteer-run project also said the captain fled the ship on a small boat.

Is this the Mediterranean’s deadliest shipwreck?

The Mediterranean’s deadliest recorded shipwreck took place on April 18, 2015; an overcrowded fishing boat, carrying as many as 1,100 migrants, collided off the coast of Libya with a ship that was trying to provide support. Only 28 people survived the collision. A record number of deaths were recorded that year in the Mediterranean, with 3,771 migrants and refugees perishing while trying to reach Europe.

The U.N.’s International Organization for Migration has recorded more than 26,000 deaths or disappearances in the Mediterranean since 2014, including over 20,000 along the Central Mediterranean route, making it the world’s deadliest one .

Read More: The Inspiring True Story Behind Netflix’s The Swimmers

How are officials and aid workers responding?

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou has since visited rescued people and expressed sorrow for those who died. Greece currently has a caretaker government pending a runoff election on June 25, but politicians are halting their campaigns out of respect. A legal investigation has also been called to look into the circumstances of the deaths.

The Greek shipping ministry has said nine Egyptians were arrested over the shipwreck. According to witnesses, Greek Skai TV reported, the ship departed from Egypt before stopping at the Libyan port city of Tobruk, and then set sail to Italy.

Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President, said she is “deeply saddened” by the news and pledged further cooperation between the E.U. and neighboring countries to crack down on migrant smuggling practices.

But rights groups are criticizing the E.U. policies that they say force migrants to take life-threatening routes. “It’s really shocking to hear that Frontex flew over the boat and no one intervened because the boat refused all offers of help,” Jérôme Tubiana, a humanitarian researcher at Doctors Without Borders told French radio, adding that European and Greek authorities should both have intervened earlier. “An overloaded boat is a boat in distress.”

“E.U. leaders must urgently expand safe routes so people are not forced onto these deadly journeys. They need to show a far greater degree of willingness to share responsibility with countries of first arrival like Greece and Italy than we saw in the recent New Pact negotiations,” said Eftychia Georgiadi, head of programs at the International Rescue Committee’s Greece office.

She added: “It’s time to finally forge a coherent European approach to asylum and migration that puts the protection of its people at its heart. If they fail to do so, many in desperate need of protection will continue to perish in the Mediterranean.”

On Thursday, thousands of protesters gathered in Athens and in Thessaloniki calling on the E.U. to relax its migration policies. In Kalamata, Reuters reported, protesters marched outside a migrants’ shelter. “Crocodile tears! No to the EU’s pact on migration,” one banner read.

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Greek Coast Guard Under Scrutiny for Response to Migrant Mass Drowning

Contradictions in the Coast Guard’s account cast new doubts over how the Greeks handled one of the worst maritime disasters in the country’s history.

By Jason Horowitz ,  Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Niki Kitsantonis

ATHENS — Shortly after a rickety fishing boat carrying hundreds of smuggled migrants sank in front of a Greek Coast Guard vessel last week, Greek officials explained that they had not intervened because the smugglers didn’t want them to.

Intervening also would have been dangerous, Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou has said, given that the ship was overcrowded and filled with migrants intent on reaching Italy.

Trying to “violently stop its course” without cooperation from the crew or passengers could have provoked a “maritime accident,” Mr. Alexiou said. He added that even though the ship was in Greece’s search and rescue territory, “you can’t intervene in international waters against a boat that is not engaged in smuggling or some other crime.”

Mr. Alexiou apparently meant smuggling drugs or guns, not people. But in the aftermath of the deadliest shipwreck in Greece in a decade, and perhaps ever, with possibly more than 700 men, women and children from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt drowned, the decision not to intervene has raised concerns that an alignment of interests between smugglers paid to reach Italy and Greek authorities who would rather the migrants be Italy’s problem led to an avoidable catastrophe.

“If the Greek Coast Guard recognized the boat as in distress, and this is an objective assessment, they should have tried to rescue them no matter what,” said Markella Io Papadouli, a lawyer specializing in maritime law and human rights at the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe Centre . She said no SOS call had been required, as the Greeks have insisted. And while there were reports of distress calls being relayed to the Greeks, she said that focusing on the call was besides the point.

“Regardless of what the smugglers wanted,” or where the migrants hoped to go, she said, “you have an obligation to rescue” when a ship is in grave danger. “Negotiating with the smugglers is like negotiation with plane hijackers.”

On Monday, the Greek authorities came under more pressure as new accusations of negligence surfaced and survivor accounts began to trickle out, describing a hapless captain, engine trouble and even suggestions that the Greek Coast Guard had accidentally caused the sinking.

The Coast Guard disputed a BBC report demonstrating that the trawler full of migrants didn’t move for seven hours on Tuesday. The Greek Coast Guard on Monday countered that the boat had traveled 30 nautical miles from its detection Tuesday morning until it sank.

Greek officials are pointing the finger at the nine men currently under arrest. The suspected smugglers, they say, rejected water to keep migrants thirsty and docile and to maintain control.

But experts say the Greek authorities also violated maritime law. A 2014 European Union law “establishing rules for the surveillance of the external sea borders” counts among the criteria for rescue “the existence of a request for assistance, although such a request shall not be the sole factor for determining the existence of a distress situation.”

The other factors for a rescue read like a description of last week’s shipwreck. Among the criteria: “The seaworthiness of the vessel and the likelihood that the vessel will not reach its final destination,” “the number of persons on board in relation to the type and condition of the vessel,” and “the availability of necessary supplies such as fuel, water and food to reach a shore.”

They also include: “the presence of qualified crew and command of the vessel,” “the availability and capability of safety, navigation and communication equipment,” “the presence of persons on board in urgent need of medical assistance,” “the presence of deceased persons on board,” and “the presence of pregnant women or of children on board.”

As of Monday the authorities had recovered 81 bodies, and had transferred most of the 104 survivors from a hospital in Kalamata, a port in southwestern Greece, to a reception center north of Athens, where access is restricted.

In Pakistan on Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared a day of mourning for the 104 Pakistanis already locally confirmed dead, though officials expect the toll to rise.

Many of the missing were from the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, the region long contested between India and Pakistan, and nearby in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. Mr. Sharif said Sunday on Twitter that law-enforcement agencies had been asked “to tighten the noose around individuals involved in the heinous act of human smuggling.”

United Nations officials have called for an investigation into what went wrong at sea.

The shipwreck occurred during a caretaker government in Greece ahead of elections on Sunday, dulling the political impact. Still, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, projected by polls to win re-election as prime minister, and whose harsh line on migrants has proved popular at home and in the European Union, laid the blame entirely on the human traffickers.

“As stunned as we are, we should also be outraged at the wretched smugglers, at those scum,” he said while campaigning in Gytheio in the southern Peloponnese on Saturday.

But the account of the Greek government has shifted over recent days. At first, the Coast Guard denied having ever tied ropes onto the fishing boat, which some survivors claimed was the cause of the shipwreck. Then the Coast Guard acknowledged that it had tied one rope briefly to ascertain the condition of the boat and passengers, some of whom, survivors said, were already dead from exposure and thirst.

The Greeks have said they wanted to stabilize the boat while critics have expressed fears that the Greeks may have been trying to tow the migrants out of their jurisdiction.

A migrant advocacy group, Alarm Phone , said that as early as noon on Tuesday, it had received calls that the vessel was in distress and that it had relayed this information to the authorities. The Greeks say that in their communications with the vessel throughout the day they were told the ship intended to sail to Italy.

The BBC also reported that a merchant ship, the Lucky Sailor, had confirmed it diverted course after being asked by the Greek Coast Guard to give the trawler food and water. According to court documents obtained by The New York Times, another ship, the Faithful Warrior, arrived about two-and-a-half hours later, and at 9:30 p.m. provided passengers with food and water. Migrants could be heard chanting “Italia, Italia.”

At 9:45 p.m. the Faithful Warrior’s captain, Panagiotis Konstantinidis, reported to the Hellenic Search and Rescue Center control center that the trawler was “rocking dangerously” because of the overcrowding on the decks. A few minutes later passengers threw supplies into the sea.

According to the documents, an official on Coast Guard Vessel 920 reported the fishing boat as having stopped at 11:45 p.m., which is when, he said, the sailors threw it a rope.

“Voices were heard in English — ‘No help, Go Italy’— and despite repeated appeals asking them if they wanted help, they ignored us and at around 23:57 they released the rope. They started the boat’s engine again and moved in a westerly direction at low speed.”

According to Mr. Konstantinidis’s testimony, the control center dismissed his ship from its relief mission at 12:18 a.m. and instructed it to leave the area. A woman who answered the phone at the shipping firm that owns the Greek cargo ship Faithful Warrior said that the Coast Guard had told the firm not to comment and to direct inquiries to the Coast Guard.

“The Coast Guard still claims that during these hours the boat was on a course to Italy and not in need of rescue,” the BBC reported.

In the court documents, the Coast Guard official noted in neat and apparently uninterrupted handwriting on his deck log, that at 1:40 a.m. the ship stopped moving again and the Coast Guard approached to assess the situation and prepared for the possibility of a rescue. But 26 minutest later, at 2:06 a.m., he reported that the ship “had begun to take a great inclination to the right side, and there was great upheaval and screams.”

“Within a few seconds the vessel capsized, resulting in the people on the external deck to fall in the sea, and the vessel to sink.”

Jason Horowitz and Niki Kitsantonis reported from Athens, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels. Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting from Siena, Italy.

Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama administration and Congress, with an emphasis on political profiles and features. More about Jason Horowitz

Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels bureau chief, leading coverage of the European Union. She joined The Times in 2019. More about Matina Stevis-Gridneff

Niki Kitsantonis is a freelance correspondent for The Times based in Athens. She has been writing about Greece for 20 years, including more than a decade of coverage for The Times. More about Niki Kitsantonis

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At least 79 migrants die in Greece shipwreck as 100 rescued by superyacht

Emergency operation complicated by strong winds, at least 79 migrants dead after boat capsizes off greek coast.

At least 79 migrants died early on Wednesday and many dozens were feared missing after a fishing boat carrying scores of people capsized off the Greek coast .

About 100 people were rescued and taken to the town of Kalamata following the incident in international waters in the Ionian Sea, the Greek coastguard said.

Coastguard authorities announced that the boat had previously declined several assistance offers. Both the coastguard and nearby merchant ships began their rescue efforts on Tuesday, according to an official statement.

The ship's captain, it was stated, expressed an intention to proceed to Italy.

Contrary to the coastguard's account, Alarm Phone, an activist network operating a hotline for distressed migrant boats, stated that it had been communicating with people presumed to be passengers on the capsized vessel.

These passengers conveyed an urgent need for aid, in stark contrast to the ship captain's earlier refusal.

Alarm Phone also claimed that the captain had abandoned the ship using a smaller boat prior to the vessel capsizing. The assertions made by the organisation are currently under investigation.

Along with navy vessels, the rescue operation included an army plane and helicopter, a drone from the EU border protection agency Frontex, as well as six other boats that were in the area. Dozens of survivors were able to board a superyacht, the Mayan Queen IV.

The spot is close to one of the deepest areas of the Mediterranean Sea and the rescue was complicated by strong winds, the coastguard said. “We fear the number of dead will rise,” said a shipping ministry official.

Alam Phone, a European rescue support charity, said it believed there were 750 people on board the 20- to 30-metre-long vessel.

Four of the survivors were taken to hospital with symptoms of hypothermia.

Katerina Tsata, head of a Red Cross volunteer group in Kalamata, said: “They suffered a very heavy blow, both physical and mental.”

Coastguard spokesman Nikos Alexiou said it appeared that the ship had capsized after people abruptly moved to one side.

“The outer deck was full of people, and we presume that the interior [of the vessel] would also have been full,” he said. “It looks as if there was a shift among the people who were crammed on board and it capsized.”

Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of Kalamata, said: “It sank very quickly and was gone by the time the rescue helicopter got there. The area where this happened has very deep water.”

State broadcaster ERT said the Italy-bound boat had sailed from the Libyan town of Tobruk, which lies south of the Greek island of Crete. Most of those on board were young men in their 20s.

Their nationalities, as well as where the boat had sailed from, were not immediately confirmed by Greek authorities.

The coastguard said the boat was first spotted in international waters late on Tuesday by an aircraft belonging to EU border agency Frontex and two nearby vessels, about 80km south-west of the town of Pylos in southern Greece.

It said those on board had refused assistance offered by Greek authorities. A few hours later the boat capsized and sank, triggering the search and rescue operation.

Alarm Phone said it had been contacted by people on a boat in distress on Tuesday afternoon. That boat was in the same general area as the one that sank, but it was not clear if it was the same vessel.

The organisation notified Greek authorities and Frontex. In one communication with Alarm Phone, migrants reported the vessel was overcrowded and that the captain had abandoned the ship on a small boat, according to the group. They asked for food and water, which was provided by a merchant ship.

Greece, Italy and Spain are the main destinations for the tens of thousands of people seeking to reach the Europe from Africa and the Middle East.

Smugglers are increasingly taking larger boats into international waters off the Greek mainland to try to avoid coastguard patrols.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted: “Deeply saddened by the news of the shipwreck off the Greek coast and the many reported deaths. Very concerned by the number of missing people.

“We must continue to work together, with member states and third countries, to prevent such tragedies.”

The United Nations has registered more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.

The worst migrant tragedy in Greece was in June 2016 when at least 320 people were listed as dead or missing, according to records going back to 1993.

The International Organisation for Migration as of Wednesday had listed 48 migrants missing in the Eastern Mediterranean so far this year, compared to 378 a year earlier.

Separately on Wednesday, Greece's port police said a sailing boat in distress carrying about 80 migrants off Crete was rescued by a coastguard patrol and towed to port.

Greece is facing an increase in crossing attempts from Turkey on southern routes near the Cyclades islands and towards the Peloponnese peninsula, hoping to avoid patrols in the northern Aegean Sea.

Last month, the Greek government came under international pressure over video footage reportedly showing the forceful expulsion of migrants who were set adrift at sea.

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• Silver Spirit ship suffers engine failure during a roundtrip...

Silver Spirit ship suffers engine failure during a roundtrip cruise from Piraeus-Athens Greece

Silversea 's ship Silver Spirit encountered engine difficulties during the final leg of a 7-night roundtrip itinerary from Piraeus-Athens Greece .

With 581 passengers and 404 crew members on board, the vessel experienced mechanical issues while en route from Port Nafplio to Piraeus, approximately 7.5 NM (14 km / 9 mi) southeast of Aegina Island near Athens.

The left main engine sustained damage, placing the ship in a precarious situation. In response, the ship's Master (Captain Gennaro Arma) promptly sought assistance from the Greek Ministry of Shipping.

In a swift response to the distress call, Greek maritime authorities dispatched two tugboats to assist the cruiser in mooring/docking at Port Piraeus. The operation was conducted under north-northwest winds of 2-3 Beaufort.

The operation concluded successfully, and Silver Spirit reached Piraeus at ~6:30 AM.

Importantly, both passengers and crew members have been reported safe and without harm.

Official Statement:

"Silver Spirit experienced partial loss of power in one engine, but continued to sail under her own power. The issue has now been resolved. There was no impact on the itinerary and the next sailing will depart as scheduled."

For more Silver Spirit incidents and accidents see the ship's CruiseMinus page .