At least 78 people are confirmed to have drowned in the Greece migrants boat tragedy on Wednesday while hundreds of others are still missing.
The Greek authorities have rescued over 100 people so far, yet the scale of the catastrophe is far bigger than initially thought, as the survivors suggest that up to 750 people were crammed on the fishing boat when it went down on Wednesday morning. Around 100 children are also believed to have been aboard at the time.
According to the Greek coastguard, the boat sunk about 50 miles (80 km) south-west of Pylos after 02:04 local time.
Frontex, the EU’s border agency, reports that the fishing boat was first spotted early afternoon on Tuesday and the Italian and Greek authorities were contacted immediately.
The Greek coastguard claims no request for help was made after the initial contact with the boat who informed them their destination was in fact Italy.
A Maltese-flagged ship provided them with food and water at around 18:00 followed by another boat who also provided water three hours later.
At around 1:40 on Wednesday, however, the Greek coastguard was notified of the vessel’s engine malfunction by someone on the boat.
Although the authorities claim they intervened immediately, Alarm Phone (an emergency helpline for migrants in trouble at sea) accuse them of delaying their help for hours whilst being fully aware of the situation as they “had been informed by different sources” that the ship was in danger.
It is also believed that the alleged refusal for help came from the people’s fright to accept Greece’s intervention due to their “horrible and systematic pushback practices”, Alarm Phone suggest.
The vessel is believed to have come from Libya and was on its way to Italy when the tragedy occurred. Aboard were allegedly hundreds on men in their 20s who had been travelling for days before it sunk in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean.
Greece has declared three days of mourning in the light of the event which is considered one of their biggest ever migrant tragedies.
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