The survivors rescued from the ship that sank this Wednesday in the Mediterranean off the coast of Greece, causing 78 deaths and hundreds missing, describe an “atmosphere of terror” on board the ship, the Efe news agency reports this Sunday.
According to that Spanish news agency, which cites testimonies recorded by television channels, the human traffickers who commanded the boat asked for money and had iron bars to terrorize the more than 700 migrants on board the fishing boat.
Authorities detained nine Egyptian men, who were among 104 passengers rescued from the sea, including eight children, who are believed to be responsible for the ship.
According to Efe, the men were denounced after the Greek authorities numbered the survivors and asked, after showing the rescued photographs, if they could identify the traffickers.
The nine detainees are accused of forming a criminal organization to traffic migrants, causing a shipwreck and endangering lives and will be present this Monday at the Public Ministry in the city of Calamata, in Greece.
According to the Greek public television station, ERT, the ship left Egypt, stopped in eastern Libya, where the migrants boarded, and then continued on to Italy, where it is estimated to be carrying more than 700 people, including women and children. placed in warehouses. of the boat
“We traveled for four days, they gave us little food and dirty water. I estimate that there were about 700 people on the boat,” said Hasan, a 23-year-old Syrian, in statements collected by the Kathimerini newspaper and quoted by Efe.
Search operations continue today, five days after the sinking, but authorities believe the chances of finding anyone alive are slim to none.
The survivors were transferred to the closed center of Malakasa, on the outskirts of Athens, to be identified and from where they can request asylum.
According to testimonies, the engine of the old trawler had begun to present problems since the second day of navigation and in the early hours of this Wednesday, when the boat was located in the southwest of the Peloponnese peninsula, it began to leak.
According to testimonies collected, the migrants then moved to the other side of the boat, where there was no water, which caused the boat to capsize.
Other testimonies cited by Efe indicate that, hours before the sinking, the Greek coast guard tried to cast a line for the trawler, but the people on board refused to help because they wanted to continue their journey to Italy.
The migratory tragedy, one of the largest in the history of the Mediterranean, has revived criticism of the European Union by international organizations and NGOs that criticize its migratory policy.
“Let’s be clear, this is not a Greek problem. It is a European problem,” UN Secretary General António Guterres said on Thursday.
“If countries do not commit to creating the conditions for orderly and regular migration, migrants will be in the hands of traffickers and the consequences will be as tragic as what we saw yesterday,” he added.
According to data provided by the Missing Migrants Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), there are almost 27,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014.
Source: TSF
