Huge search on for hundreds of missing migrants after shipwreck off Greece

Hundreds of migrants are feared missing after a fishing vessel they were on sank off Greece on its way from Libya to Italy, triggering a massive search operation in the Mediterranean.

Interim Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Sarmas has declared a three-day national mourning period after the shipwreck tragedy that resulted in the loss of at least 79 lives — one of the worst ever migrant disasters recorded.

Hundreds of people are thought to have been on board when the boat went down Wednesday, although there were conflicting information about the precise figure. Charity Alarm Phone, which operates a trans-European network supporting rescue operations, earlier said it received alerts from people on board a ship in distress, that as many as 750 people were on board the vessel. Other reports say more than 500 people were on board.

Rescuers saved 104 passengers — including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians — and recovered 79 bodies. And the search went on early Thursday for more, with aircraft dropping flares to help search teams.

“It's one of the biggest (such) operations ever in the Mediterranean,” Greek coast guard spokesperson Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV.

“We won't stop looking.”

Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of the southern port city of Kalamata, where survivors were taken, said his information indicated there were “more than 500 people” on board.

The 25- to 30-metre boat is believed to have left the Tobruk area in Libya, which was plunged into chaos following the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed longtime ruler Muammar Gaddafi. The instability allowed migrant smugglers to make Libya one of the main departure points for people seeks a better life in Europe.

Call for urgent action

Migration experts linked the sinking with the European Union's failure to provide safe immigration alternatives for people fleeing conflict or hardship in the Middle East and Africa.

“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 UN migration agency.

“This situation reinforces the urgency for concrete, comprehensive action from states to save lives at sea and reduce perilous journeys by expanding safe and regular pathways to migration,” Rocco said.

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

EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said the bloc has “a collective moral duty” to dismantle migrant smuggling networks.

“The best way to ensure safety of migrants is to prevent these catastrophic journeys and invest in legal pathways,” she wrote on Twitter.

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

“They categorically refused any help,” Alexiou said.

An aerial photograph of the vessel released by the coast guard showed scores of people covering practically every inch of deck. Greek media reports, which said the ship had been at sea for least two days, voiced fears that women and children may have been trapped in the hold.

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

The spot is close to the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea and depths of up to 5,200 metres could hamper any effort to locate a sunken vessel.

Exhausted survivors

Thirty survivors ranging in age from 16 to 49 were hospitalised with hypothermia or fever.

At the port of Kalamata, around 70 exhausted survivors bedded down in sleeping bags and blankets provided by rescuers in a large warehouse, while paramedics set up tents outside for anyone who needed first aid.

Rescue volunteer Constantinos Vlachonikolos said nearly all the survivors were men.

“They were very worn out. How could they not be?” he said. Rescuers said many of the people pulled from the water couldn't swim and were clutching debris. The coast guard said none had life jackets.

Smugglers often use unseaworthy boats crammed with as many migrants as possible — sometimes inside locked holds — for journeys that can take days. They head for Italy, which is directly across the Mediterranean from Libya and Tunisia and much closer than Greece to the Western European countries that most migrants hope to eventually reach.

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.