Referring to the ship carrying migrants that sank in international waters off the Peloponnese coast, The International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project noted in a tweet, “This could be the second deadliest shipwreck we have ever recorded after the tragic shipwreck of April, 2015 on route to Italy.”
Patrol boats and a helicopter spent a third day on Friday, June 16, 2023, searching the area where the ship, which was traveling from Libya to Italy, sank early Wednesday, June 14, 2023. The IOM estimated that as many as 500 passengers may have drowned.
The Greek coast guard disclosed that the search and rescue operation would be extended beyond the standard 72 hours. Rescuers pulled 104 survivors from the water and later recovered 78 bodies but have not located any more since late Wednesday.
The scale of the disaster put fresh pressure on both the Greek government and the European Union.
The U.N.’s migration and refugee agencies issued a joint statement calling timely maritime search and rescues “a legal and humanitarian imperative” and calling for “urgent and decisive action to prevent further deaths at sea.”
Adriana Tidona of Amnesty International stated, “The Greek government had specific responsibilities toward every passenger on the vessel, which was clearly in distress. “This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions, all the more so because it was entirely preventable,” she added.
The rescue operation also created political controversy in Greece as the country heads to a general election on June 25. Large protests in Athens turned violent late Thursday and led to 21 arrests.
Left-wing opposition leader, Alexis Tsipras visited survivors and said the coast guard should have towed the ship to safety as it approached Greek waters; a concern echoed by human rights organizations.
Nine people, all men from Egypt, ranging in age from 20 to 40, were arrested, detained and charged on Friday of people smuggling and participating in a criminal enterprise. They are due to appear in court on Monday, June 19, 2023.
According to health officials, twenty-seven of the survivors remain hospitalized.
“A European Problem”
In a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.N. Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres urged that an effective migration policy had to be established.
“Let’s be clear. This is not a Greek problem. This is a European problem. I think it’s time for Europe to be able, in solidarity, to define an effective migration policy for these kinds of situations not to happen again.”
Antonio Guterres
The EU’s executive commission stated that the organisation is close to an agreement on how member countries can share responsibility in caring for migrants and refugees who undertake the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, Greece and other southern EU nations that typically are the first destinations for Europe-bound asylum-seekers traveling by sea have toughened border protection measures in recent years, extending walls and intensifying maritime patrols.
Pope Francis, who was discharged from the hospital on Friday , urged European governments to do more to protect people who risk their lives while attempting to find better ones.
“I feel great pain at the death of the migrants, including many children, in the shipwreck,” a tweet from Francis’ Twitter account read. “We must do everything possible so that migrants fleeing war and poverty do not meet death while seeking a future of hope,” the tweet added.
