Greece searches for hundreds feared missing after migrant boat sank, leaving 78 dead

Associated Press

Kalamata: Rescue ships fanned out on Thursday in search of hundreds of migrants feared missing after their overcrowded boat capsized and sank as they tried to reach Europe. At least 78 people died.

Rescuers saved 104 passengers from a fishing boat that sank in deep waters off Greece's coast while trying to travel from Libya to Italy, 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. “The chances of finding (more survivors) are minimal,” retired Greek coast guard admiral Nikos Spanos told staterun ERT television.

The UN migration agency, known as IOM, estimated that the vessel was carrying 700 to 750 people, including at least 40 children, based on interviews with survivors. Authorities revised the confirmed death toll from 79 to 78 following an overnight count of the bodies. The people rescued were mostly men and included Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians.

“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.”