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Dozens are dead and hundreds feared missing from migrant ship sinking off Greece

The Associated Press

This undated handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. AP hide caption

This undated handout image provided by Greece's coast guard on Wednesday, June14, 2023, shows scores of people covering practically every free stretch of deck on a battered fishing boat that later capsized and sank off southern Greece.

KALAMATA, Greece — Rescue workers transferred the bodies of dead migrants to refrigerated trucks as a major search continued Thursday for possible survivors of a sea disaster in southern Greece. Hundreds of people are still feared missing.

At least 78 bodies have been recovered after a fishing boat crammed with migrants seeking to make it from Libya to Italy capsized and sank a day earlier in deep waters off the Greek coast.

Rescuers saved 104 passengers — including Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians — 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.

Authorities revised the confirmed death toll from 79 following an overnight count of the bodies.

Why Tunisians are now risking their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe

"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."

Greece declared three days of mourning and politicians suspended campaigning for a general election on June 25.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said she was "deeply saddened" by the tragedy and promised to strengthen cooperation between the European Union and nearby countries to try to further crack down on migrant smugglers.

But human rights groups argue that the crackdown means migrants and refugees are being forced to take longer and more dangerous routes to reach safe countries.

The search operation south of Greece's Peloponnese region failed to locate any more bodies or survivors overnight or early Thursday.

A map shows the route that a fishing boat carrying migrants to Italy from Libya sank in the Mediterranean Wednesday. AP hide caption

A map shows the route that a fishing boat carrying migrants to Italy from Libya sank in the Mediterranean Wednesday.

"The chances of finding (more survivors) are minimal," retired Greek coast guard admiral Nikos Spanos told state-run ERT television.

"We have seen old fishing boats like this before from Libya: They are about 30 meters (100 feet) long and can carry 600-700 people when crammed full. But they are not at all seaworthy. To put it simply, they are floating coffins."

Coast guard experts believe the boat may have sunk after running out of fuel or suffering engine trouble, with movement of passengers inside the vessel causing it to list and ultimately capsize.

An aerial photograph of the vessel before it sank released by Greek authorities showed people crammed on the deck. Most were not wearing life jackets.

Migrants Continue To Die In Attempts To Cross Mediterranean Sea To Europe

"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 U.N. migration agency.

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

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

Twenty-nine of the survivors in southern Greece remain hospitalized, mostly with symptoms of hypothermia, while eight have been questioned by coast guard investigators. Government officials said the survivors would be moved to a migrant shelter near Athens later Thursday or Friday.

A survivors of a shipwreck washes his face outside a warehouse at the port in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150miles) southwest of Athens on Wednesday, June 14, 2023. Thanassis Stavrakis/AP hide caption

A survivors of a shipwreck washes his face outside a warehouse at the port in Kalamata town, about 240 kilometers (150miles) southwest of Athens on Wednesday, June 14, 2023.

The spot is close to the deepest part of the Mediterranean Sea, and depths of up to 17,000 feet (5,200 meters) could hamper any effort to locate a sunken vessel.

The IOM said initial reports suggested up to 400 people were aboard. A network of activists said it received a distress call from a boat in the same area whose passengers said it carried 750 people.

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.

• mediterranean

The 11-hour anguished search for survivors of the shipwreck in Greece: ‘Ship sinking. We’re asking you to come to the rescue’

In the early hours of the morning of june 14, the captain of an oil tanker received a call to help save the trawler that sank 30 miles off the coast of greece. the sea had swallowed everything up. navigational data show contradictions in greece’s official account of events.

It was a clear, windless dawn, and the sea was as smooth as glass. The Rekon , a 122-meter Maltese-flagged tanker, was going about its route to the port of Haifa in Israel. Then the radio announced a distress call: “Ship sinking. Large number of people. Vessels in the vicinity are asked to proceed with search and rescue operations.” The officer immediately alerted the captain. It was June 14 at 2:12 a.m. local Greek time.

Captain Sait Bektasoglu, a 63-year-old Turk with four decades of experience at sea, ran to the bridge. “We changed our course immediately to the wreck site, we adjusted our radars for sensitivity, and I mobilized the crew,” he recalls. His account of 11 hours of fruitless searching is harrowing and rich in heretofore unknown details.

It took the Rekon an hour and 15 minutes to reach the coordinates it received, an area some 50 miles off the Greek coast. When it arrived, the luxury yacht Mayan Queen IV and two other cargo ships were already searching the water for survivors. The tanker then slowed down, turned on its search lights and its crew of 14 sailors began scanning the vast stretch of black water with binoculars. They didn’t see or hear anything. “It was as if nothing had happened,” recalls the captain. “There were no life jackets, no floats, no trace of oil, no trash, no floating material from the ship, nothing,” he recounts.

The Adriana , a ramshackle fishing boat of about 25 meters, had set sail for Italy with some 750 occupants on board. Women and children were crammed into the hold and many of the men were on deck. They were Syrian and Afghan refugees, Egyptians, Pakistanis and Palestinians. The Greek authorities had been aware of the ship’s presence since 11 a.m. on June 13 and, in addition to keeping it under surveillance, ordered two ships in the area to deliver food and water to those onboard. They never activated a rescue operation, despite the conditions in which the ship was sailing, not even when the ship’s engine broke down at 1:40 a.m. Between 2:04 a.m. and 2:19 a.m., the old metal fishing trawler jolted violently and then disappeared right before the eyes of the Greek coastguard. It is still not clear what happened, but the sea swallowed everything up.

Greece’s official version of events claims that the castaways refused any help and continued on their way to Italy. But navigation data contradicts that assertion. The coordinates of the distress call place the trawler just over a mile from its location at 7.30 p.m. when a first vessel approached it to supply it with food. In other words, in the seven hours between the delivery of supplies and when it sank, the Adriana was not approaching Italy as the Greek authorities claim ; the ship made practically no progress and moved just over a mile away towards its presumed destination.

While Bektasoglu was scanning the sea from the deck, between 3:00 and 4:00, a Greek patrol boat arrived and took command of the operation. The radio continued to instruct nearby vessels to approach the area. One passenger cruise ship, the Celebrity Beyond , “asked if it could lower its rescue boat and join the search, but was told no,” Bektasoglu explains. “There were already too many ships searching without detecting anything,” the captain theorizes. As many as eight large ships participated in the search for survivors. EL PAÍS unsuccessfully tried to contact them all.

The radio was constantly broadcasting messages to all the ships involved in the rescue. The Mayan Queen IV , a luxury yacht owned by a multimillionaire Mexican family, reported that it had already pulled a hundred or so castaways out of the water alive. “I don’t know how it sank at a depth of 4,500 meters, but I am sure that if this superyacht had not been there, the freighters could not have rescued more than two people each. The survivors were lucky to come across a ship that could rescue them and reunite over 100 people. A superyacht is much better equipped than the coast guard boats,” Bektasoglu explains.

“I couldn’t stand it,” Bektasoglu recounts. “I suggested that [the Turkish bulk carrier] ask the cruiser for help, but he was ordered to wait. [The Rusander ] kept asking for medical assistance for more than an hour, and again I recommended that he approach the cruiser for help. They ignored me in both Turkish and English,” the veteran sailor maintains.

The helicopter finally appeared as dawn was breaking. “It picked up the living and the lifeless bodies that were transferred to the Greek ship,” Bektasoglu explains. A new Greek patrol boat joined the operation. In all, 81 bodies were recovered.

The veteran captain, who had gone 11 hours without rescuing anyone, eating or sleeping, began to lose hope. “We did not experience a chaotic situation because there was nothing to be seen, there was no dramatic scene. The water was still like a mirror and after a few hours we lost morale,” he explains.

At 7:00 a.m. he asked for permission to continue his trip but was denied. A half an hour later, a military frigate arrived, took over command and gave the ships new coordinates to continue the search. “They sent me to two different places, I increased speed, arrived and searched,” he recounts. Again, the search was unsuccessful. Over the radio, he heard a freighter being ordered to “raise your boat, pick up the body and bring it to the Greek ship.” Other ships also used their lifeboats, while two helicopters flew overhead, he says.

The Turkish captain appreciates the measures the Greeks deployed, even though they only activated the search and rescue operation when the trawler was already sinking. “For several hours they deployed a plane, a patrol boat, two coast guard frigates, a rescue ship, three helicopters and a navy frigate; it’s a great effort,” he says.

At 8:30 a.m., Bektasoglu tried to leave again. He was in a hurry because he had to unload 5,200 tons of methyl tertiary butyl ether (a liquid that increases fuel efficiency) in Israel and then arrive in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, by June 20. He was not cleared to leave the operation until 11:45. As he left, he heard other ships being radioed to join the search. “I was tired, went to the bridge at 2.20 and couldn’t stop for lunch until after 12:00 the next day. I spent 11 hours on the search,” he recalls.

The captain learned what happened next from the press. He is frustrated that he didn’t find anyone to save. He also curses the human traffickers “who do business this way” and “buried” hundreds of people at a depth of 4,500 meters. He muses that “in a few centuries, when they find these bodies, they will serve as evidence for historians.”

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Greece imposes silence around shipwreck of overcrowded migrant boat

Activists criticize arrest of nine survivors of Greek shipwreck: ‘The real traffickers do not risk their lives on boats like this one’

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Greek shipwreck: Everything you need to know

On Wednesday, June 14, a tragic shipwreck occurred off the Greek coast. Find out more about why people seeking protection are forced to take a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea.

On June 14, a ship capsized in the Mediterranean Sea, sinking off the coast of Greece. Despite a rescue mission that saved over 100 people, more than 80 have died. An estimated 500 more people are missing and feared to be dead.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is continuing to call for a full, transparent investigation of the tragedy .

Each year thousands of people make this dangerous voyage across the Mediterranean Sea. It’s all too common for these journeys to end tragically—with deaths in the Mediterranean Sea reaching a six year  high in 2023 .

Learn more about the shipwreck in Greek waters and what world leaders can do to address the humanitarian crises in the Mediterranean Sea.

What happened to the Greek shipwreck?

In the early hours of June 14, a fishing boat with an estimated 750 people onboard sank approximately 47 nautical miles off the coast of Pylos, Greece. The vessel left Libya and was en route to Italy.

The shipwreck is one of the most devastating accidents to take place in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years. As the death toll continues to rise, this shipwreck will likely become the second deadliest ever for people seeking asylum.

Who was onboard the ship?

Asylum seekers from Pakistan , Egypt, Syria , Afghanistan and Palestine were onboard the ship. According to international and European Union law, asylum seekers must arrive in an EU country before they can apply for asylum there. 

Nine men onboard were suspected smugglers, charged with crimes related to human trafficking.

Why do asylum seekers try to cross the Mediterranean Sea?

Globally, the number of people displaced has reached the staggering number of 110 million . Many of the people that attempt to make the desperate trek across the Mediterranean Sea have been driven from their homes by rising food insecurity, unemployment, and the impact of climate change, with some fleeing violence, conflict or persecution in countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan or Somalia. 

The vast majority of people attempting the Mediterranean crossing pass through Libya first, where they are often exposed to horrific levels of violence, including kidnapping, torture and extortion. Many people who arrive in Libya are also detained in detention centers, where the U.N. says that conditions amount to “crimes against humanity”.

“I was scared when they took us from our boat in the middle of the sea, but when I knew we were going back to Libya, I remembered all the bad things that happened to me in the detention center, so I jumped in the water… I can’t go back there,” says Fnan*, a 26-year-old man from Eritrea whose boat was intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard as he attempted to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

“People are desperate to leave Libya because of the conditions they are living in,” says Tom Garofalo, the IRC’s country director in Libya. “Every day, they know they could be abducted, arbitrarily detained and subjected to violence and abuse. Risking their lives at sea is a last resort.”

A common route taken by many asylum seekers—called the Central Mediterranean Route—stretches from sub-Saharan Africa to North Africa, including Libya, and across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. It is one of the world’s most dangerous migration routes.

How dangerous is the Central Mediterranean crossing?

The Central Mediterranean Sea is one of the world’s deadliest migration routes.

On April 18, 2015, the Mediterranean’s deadliest known shipwreck occurred when an overcrowded fishing boat collided off Libya with a freighter that was trying to come to its rescue. As many as 1,100 people were on board; only 28 people survived.

More recently, in February 2023, at least 94 people died when a boat carrying 200 migrants amidst harsh weather conditions sank while trying to land on the coast of Southern Italy.

These are just a small selection of a long series of preventable tragedies. Asylum seekers are only forced to take the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean because there are not enough safe and legal routes.

How common are migrant journeys across the Mediterranean Sea?

Even before last Wednesday’s deaths, at least 1,039 people were known to be missing from Central Mediterranean crossings this year—but the real number is likely to be far higher as many wrecks are not recorded. Overall, the International Organization of Migration has tallied more than 27,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014.

In addition to the deadly Central Mediterranean route, the Western Mediterranean route is used by migrants seeking to reach Spain from Morocco or Algeria. The Eastern Mediterranean route is mainly used by Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other non-African migrants who go first to Turkey and then try to reach Greece or other European destinations.

How should world leaders address shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea?

Unfortunately, too many governments and politicians mistakenly believe that cruelty and inhumanity are the best options for establishing order at their borders. In reality, these solutions push people into the hands of smugglers to get past checkpoints, across borders and ultimately onto boats.

“Europe’s approach to migration and asylum is failing,” says Harlem Désir, IRC senior vice president, Europe. “The true crisis is not that people are asking for refuge, but the glaring lack of political will to provide it.”

EU leaders must address the ongoing crisis in the Mediterranean. Saving lives is not a crime—states must scale up search and rescue efforts, as well as coordinating with humanitarian organizations also working to save lives at sea.

They should also act in solidarity with countries of first arrival, expand legal pathways for people seeking protection, treat people who have crossed the Mediterranean with dignity and uphold the right to asylum in Europe. 

“It’s imperative that EU leaders take urgent, principled action to prevent more suffering at Europe’s borders,” said Imogen Sudbery, the IRC’s senior director of Europe advocacy. “If they fail to do so, the Mediterranean will not just become a graveyard for more people seeking protection, but for its own values of human rights, dignity and equality.”

Investigate the Greek Shipwreck

The IRC is calling on the EU and its member states to launch a full and transparent investigation of the shipwreck. 

“It's deeply shameful that hundreds have perished in one of the deadliest ever shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea and we have yet to see a full, transparent investigation into the incident,” says Désir. “It’s time for concrete steps towards accountability, and to finally put an end to these needless and avoidable deaths.”

The Greek government has opened an investigation of the shipwreck but serious concerns have been raised about its independence and transparency.

How is the IRC supporting asylum seekers in Europe?

The IRC provides lifesaving medical services, cash and other essential support to  vulnerable people in their countries of origin, transit and destination. 

Since 2016 the IRC has been present in Libya, providing life-saving health and protection services, strengthening the country’s health system and building the capacity of Libyan youth in peacebuilding and governance initiatives. In the first seven months of 2023, the IRC has carried out 49 emergency responses to boats intercepted at sea and returned to Libyan shores, supporting more than 3,800 people, including 190 women and 228 children.

We have also been working in Italy since 2017, providing refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants with access to information, protection, legal assistance, and psycho-social support while also working on the early identification of trafficking survivors.

What can I do to help asylum seekers crossing the Mediterranean Sea? 

Seeking asylum is a human right. Share this post to raise awareness of the dangers that asylum seekers face when crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

*Names changed for privacy.

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Greece shipwreck disaster exposes Europe’s deadly failure

Central Mediterranean migration route grows ever more perilous amid bickering and division over creating safe passages

The deaths of as many as 500 people feared drowned in the sinking of an overcrowded fishing boat off southern Greece have once more thrown a spotlight on the world’s deadliest migratory route – and Europe’s failure to tackle one of its greatest challenges.

Since the International Organization for Migration (IoM) launched its missing migrants project in 2014, an estimated 27,000 people trying to reach Europe have been recorded as dead or disappeared while trying to cross the Mediterranean.

More than 21,000 of those deaths have occurred on the so-called central Mediterranean route from Libya or Tunisia north to Greece or Italy, a crossing that can take several days and is often made in unseaworthy, dangerously overloaded boats.

Most migrants to Greece now cross from Turkey, either reaching the eastern Greek islands by boat or crossing the Evros River along the land border – and their number has fallen sharply since Athens stepped up sea patrols and built a border fence.

Because the trek up to western or northern Europe from Greece also involves an often arduous crossing of the Balkans, many migrants now seek to bypass Greece.

Instead, the vast majority now head for Italy, which has recorded 55,160 “irregular” arrivals in Europe so far this year – more than double the number in 2022 – mostly from Ivory Coast, Egypt, Guinea, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The central Mediterranean route is, meanwhile, becoming deadlier. According to an IoM report in April, at least 441 people drowned making the crossing between January and March this year, the deadliest three-month period since 2017.

A further 600 who attempted the crossing in April and May are known to be dead or missing, bringing the total this year to at least 1,039 before Wednesday’s deaths. The real figure, given that many sinkings are never recorded, is believed to be far higher.

The IoM has pointed the finger – although without naming names – at some Mediterranean governments, where state-led search and rescue (SAR) operations have been delayed and NGO-operated vessels obstructed.

Italy has imposed severe restrictions and even impounded humanitarian vessels, while Greece faces multiple allegations that it pushes people back to Turkey, illegally preventing them from claiming asylum, something Athens has consistently denied.

Overall, the number of people trying to reach Europe remains well down on its 2015-2016 peak, thanks in part to a 2016 EU deal with Turkey and a much-criticised 2017 arrangement with Libya that in effect outsources rescues to the Libyan coastguard.

But the number is climbing – and with anti-immigration sentiment and political pressure on the rise across the continent, the question remains one of the EU’s biggest problems, with member states profoundly divided.

Southern “frontline” states have long borne the brunt; wealthier northern “destination” states are often reluctant to share the burden; and hardline central and eastern ones (such as Hungary and Poland) have refused to accept any such refugees at all.

After years of bickering, EU leaders last week announced a breakthrough in negotiations for a new migration and asylum pact, including charges of €20,000 (£17,200) a head for member countries that refuse to host refugees.

The bloc agreed that member states, rather than the EU as a whole, would determine which countries were considered “safe” for migrants turned away because they were ineligible for asylum, giving member states greater individual flexibility.

The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has also said the bloc was considering providing more than €1bn (£850m) in aid for Tunisia to rescue state finances and help deal with its migration crisis.

Many critics, however, argue that little genuine progress has been made on creating safe and legal routes for asylum seekers to Europe, with too much recent emphasis on restricting asylum applications and criminalising SAR activities.

“Every lost life is a tragedy,” Maria Clara Martin, UNHCR’s representative in Greece, said on Thursday. “These deaths could have been avoided by creating more safe means of entry for people forced to flee conflicts and persecution.”

Gianluca Rocco, the IoM’s head of mission in Greece, said it was “urgent to have concrete and coordinated action from states to save lives at sea, and to reduce dangerous journeys by increasing safe and regular migration routes”.

The underlying causes pushing so many to come to Europe – war, natural disasters, the climate crisis, poverty, inequality and food insecurity – will not be going away anytime soon.

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As hundreds are missing in deadly Greek shipwreck – what are the deadly routes across the Mediterranean?

Sinking off the coast of greece of boat en route from libya to italy once more draws attention to dangerous waters people routinely attempt to navigate in pursuit of a better life, article bookmarked.

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The sinking of a migrant boat off the coast of Greece has left at least 78 people dead – with the central Mediterranean facing one of its worst disasters in recent memory.

More than a hundred passengers have since been rescued from the stricken vessel, which was making the perilous crossing from Tobruk in northern Libya to southern Italy when its engine cut out, causing it to take on water and flood over one of the sea’s deepest points.

The craft, measuring 25 to 30 metres long, reportedly rebuffed offers of help from the Greek coastguard before it capsized and may have been grossly overcrowded with “more than 500 people” on board, according to Ioannis Zafiropoulos, deputy mayor of the southern port city of Kalamata, where the survivors were taken.

Those rescued so far include Egyptians, Syrians, Pakistanis, Afghans and Palestinians, all of whom were seeking escape from North Africa and the Middle East in search of a better quality of life in Europe.

The trip from North Africa through the central Mediterranean to southern Europe is the deadliest migratory route in the world, according to the United Nations ’ International Organisation of Migration (IOM).

• Hundreds more feared drowned after 78 killed in Greece’s worst migrant boat tragedy in years
• Huge search seeks survivors of migrant boat sinking off Greece as hundreds feared missing
• A look at migration trends behind the latest shipwreck off Greece

There are two other routes migrants commonly pursue across the same sea: the shorter crossing from the west from Morocco or Algeria into southern Spain or France or across to central Italy and the eastern route, often used in the past by people fleeing the likes of Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan into Turkey or Greece.

Many migrants prefer to attempt to bypass Greece and reach Italy, where they can more easily continue their journeys north to family and other migrant communities elsewhere.

Had the migrants aboard the sunken boat managed to land in Greece, they would have had to trek through the often-hostile Balkans to reach western or northern Europe, whereas the route north from Italy is closer and often more accessible.

Those migrants who do arrive in Greece typically cross from Turkey, either reaching its nearby eastern islands in small boats or by crossing the Evros river, which runs along the land border.

Crossings have fallen sharply in recent years, however, as Greece has stepped up its sea patrols and built a border fence along the Evros, although it has nevertheless faced persistent accusations from migrants themselves, human rights groups and from Turkish officials that it returns migrants back across the border to Turkey, illegally preventing them from claiming asylum, an allegation Athens denies.

Before this week’s disaster, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had recorded 72,778 migrant arrivals in Europe via the Mediterranean so far in 2023, with the vast majority of that total, 71,136, arriving by sea with the aid of people smugglers.

Italy has recorded the vast majority of the arrivals to Europe so far this year, with 55,160, which is more than double the 21,884 who arrived in the same period in 2022 and 16,737 in 2021. People from Ivory Coast, Egypt, Guinea, Pakistan and Bangladesh account for the majority, according to Interior Ministry data.

The UNHCR has meanwhile recorded 1,037 people as dead or missing during that time in what was the deadliest first quarter in six years , giving an idea of just how dangerous the undertaking is and just how much risk migrants take on in attempting the crossing.

The IOM has recorded more than 27,000 deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean since 2014.

The sea’s deadliest known shipwreck occurred on 18 April 2015 when an overcrowded fishing boat collided off Libya with a freighter that was trying to come to its rescue. Only 28 people survived. Forensic experts who worked to identify the dead concluded in 2018 that there were originally 1,100 on board.

That year one million refugees and migrants fled to Europe by sea, according to figures from the UN Refugee Agency. Some 1,000,573 people had reached Europe across the Mediterranean, mainly to Greece and Italy. Of these, 3,735 were missing, believed drowned.

Another notable shipwreck occurred on 3 October 2013, when a trawler packed with more than 500 people from Eritrea and Ethiopia, caught fire and capsized within sight of an uninhabited islet off the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. Local fishermen raced to the vessel’s aid and 155 people were saved but 368 died.

As the issue returns to the headlines, the European Union ’s home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson said the bloc has “a collective moral duty” to dismantle migrant smuggling networks.

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

Additional reporting by agencies

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12 crew members are missing, 1 dead after a cargo ship sinks off a Greek island in stormy seas

Paramedics transfer a survivor of a shipwreck at a hospital, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. A cargo ship sank off the Greek island of Lesbos early Sunday, leaving 13 crew members missing and one rescued, authorities said. The Raptor, registered in the Comoros, was on its way to Istanbul from Alexandria, Egypt, carrying 6,000 tons of salt, the coast guard said. It had a crew of 14, including eight Egyptians, four Indians and two Syrians, the coast guard said.(AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)

Paramedics carry the body of a crew member of a ship, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. A cargo ship sank off the Greek island of Lesbos early Sunday, leaving 13 crew members missing and one rescued, authorities said. The Raptor, registered in the Comoros, was on its way to Istanbul from Alexandria, Egypt, carrying 6,000 tons of salt, the coast guard said. It had a crew of 14, including eight Egyptians, four Indians and two Syrians, the coast guard said.(AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)

Paramedics carry the body of a crew member of a ship, on the northeastern Aegean Sea island of Lesbos, Greece, Sunday, Nov. 26, 2023. A cargo ship sank off the Greek island of Lesbos early Sunday, leaving 13 crew members missing and one rescued, authorities said. The Raptor, registered in the Comoros, was on its way to Istanbul from Alexandria, Egypt, carrying 6,000 tons of salt, the coast guard said. It had a crew of 14, including eight Egyptians, four Indians and two Syrians, the coast guard said. (AP Photo/Panagiotis Balaskas)

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — A cargo ship sank off the Greek island of Lesbos in stormy seas early Sunday, leaving one crew member dead, 12 missing and one rescued, authorities said.

The Raptor, registered in Comoros, was on its way to Istanbul from Alexandria, Egypt, carrying 6,000 tons of salt, the coast guard said. It had a crew of 14, including eight Egyptians, four Indians and two Syrians, the coast guard said.

The ship reported a mechanical problem at 7 a.m. Sunday, sent a distress signal at 8:20 a.m. and shortly after disappeared about 4 1/2 nautical miles (8 kilometers) southwest of Lesbos, authorities said.

A dead crew member was retrieved Sunday afternoon and was transported to Lesbos. The body arrived on the island but has not been identified yet, a coast guard spokeswoman told The Associated Press.

One Egyptian was rescued, another coast guard spokeswoman told AP earlier Sunday.

She said eight merchant ships, two helicopters and one Greek navy frigate were searching for survivors. Three coast guard vessels had difficulty reaching the area because of rough seas, she added. Both spokeswomen spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was ongoing and she wasn’t authorized to speak to the media.

Private TV channel Mega reported that the rescued crew member, an engineer, told coast guard officers that the ship had started taking water Saturday.

Northwesterly winds in excess of 80 kph (50 mph) per hour were blowing in the area, the national weather service said.

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Cruise Ship Sinks Near Greece; 2 Missing

April 6, 2007 / 12:32 PM EDT / CBS/AP

A Mediterranean cruise ship that struck a volcanic reef and forced the evacuation of hundreds of tourists sank on Friday, 15 hours after it began taking on water off the coast of the Greek island of Santorini. A Frenchman and his daughter were missing, officials said.

The death throes of the Sea Diamond were broadcast around the world Friday morning, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips .

Passengers on Thursday climbed down rope ladders to coast guard boats below in a three-hour rescue that involved Greece's military, commercial ships and the island's local fishermen. About 700 of the 1200 passengers on the five-day cruise were American, many of them students. There were also groups from Canada and Spain.

Authorities said two French passengers — a 45-year-old man and his 16-year-old daughter — had still not been accounted for, and lists of rescued passengers were being rechecked.

Tourism Minister Fanny Palli Petralia said she had spoken with the missing passenger's wife.

"The lady said her cabin filled with water when the ship struck rocks and that she narrowly escaped," Petralia said. "She was not sure whether her husband and daughter made it out because things happened so suddenly ... in a few seconds. Her other child was up on deck and was evacuated safely."

Those rescued said most people remained calm though there were some tense moments.

The Sea Diamond struck rocks in the sea-filled crater formed by a volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago. But the waters are well-charted, reports Phillips .

Tourists gathered on clifftop towns and villages to watch the rescue.

"We realized there was a serious problem ... We exited our cabin and it was tough to be able to walk out of the ship. A lot of people were very emotional over it, upset, very frightened," said Stephen Johnson, a Canadian passenger.

An Australian passenger, Katie Sumner, said the early stages of the rescue were chaotic.

"We heard a big shudder and then the whole boat started to tilt," Sumner said.

"All of our glasses were sliding everywhere and our warning that the ship was sinking was some of the staff running down the corridor screaming out 'life jackets' and banging on doors, so we got no time to, sort of, get ready or anything, we just left as we were."

The 469-foot Sea Diamond was operated by Louis Cruise Lines, part of a Cyprus-based tourism group. The Merchant Marine Ministry said 1,195 passengers and 391 crew members were on board.

"Whoever is responsible for this will be held accountable in the strictest way," Petralia said. "Greece is a major tourism destination and incidents like this must not be allowed to occur. ... Authorities handled the rescue very well."

Most of the rescued passengers arrived at Athens' main port of Piraeus Friday on a chartered ferry and a Louis cruise ship.

Authorities on Santorini said they were working to contain a small oil spillage from the sunken ship.

The Sea Diamond's captain and three officers were being interviewed Friday by coast guard investigators who flew to Santorini.

More than 300 rescued passengers arrived at Athens' main port of Piraeus early Friday on a chartered ferry, and more were due to arrive later in the day on another Louis cruise ship.

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Greek Coast Guard Under Scrutiny for Response to Migrant Mass Drowning

Contradictions in the Coast Guard’s account cast new doubts over how the Greeks handled one of the worst maritime disasters in the country’s history.

By Jason Horowitz ,  Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Niki Kitsantonis

ATHENS — Shortly after a rickety fishing boat carrying hundreds of smuggled migrants sank in front of a Greek Coast Guard vessel last week, Greek officials explained that they had not intervened because the smugglers didn’t want them to.

Intervening also would have been dangerous, Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou has said, given that the ship was overcrowded and filled with migrants intent on reaching Italy.

Trying to “violently stop its course” without cooperation from the crew or passengers could have provoked a “maritime accident,” Mr. Alexiou said. He added that even though the ship was in Greece’s search and rescue territory, “you can’t intervene in international waters against a boat that is not engaged in smuggling or some other crime.”

Mr. Alexiou apparently meant smuggling drugs or guns, not people. But in the aftermath of the deadliest shipwreck in Greece in a decade, and perhaps ever, with possibly more than 700 men, women and children from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt drowned, the decision not to intervene has raised concerns that an alignment of interests between smugglers paid to reach Italy and Greek authorities who would rather the migrants be Italy’s problem led to an avoidable catastrophe.

“If the Greek Coast Guard recognized the boat as in distress, and this is an objective assessment, they should have tried to rescue them no matter what,” said Markella Io Papadouli, a lawyer specializing in maritime law and human rights at the Advice on Individual Rights in Europe Centre . She said no SOS call had been required, as the Greeks have insisted. And while there were reports of distress calls being relayed to the Greeks, she said that focusing on the call was besides the point.

“Regardless of what the smugglers wanted,” or where the migrants hoped to go, she said, “you have an obligation to rescue” when a ship is in grave danger. “Negotiating with the smugglers is like negotiation with plane hijackers.”

On Monday, the Greek authorities came under more pressure as new accusations of negligence surfaced and survivor accounts began to trickle out, describing a hapless captain, engine trouble and even suggestions that the Greek Coast Guard had accidentally caused the sinking.

The Coast Guard disputed a BBC report demonstrating that the trawler full of migrants didn’t move for seven hours on Tuesday. The Greek Coast Guard on Monday countered that the boat had traveled 30 nautical miles from its detection Tuesday morning until it sank.

Greek officials are pointing the finger at the nine men currently under arrest. The suspected smugglers, they say, rejected water to keep migrants thirsty and docile and to maintain control.

But experts say the Greek authorities also violated maritime law. A 2014 European Union law “establishing rules for the surveillance of the external sea borders” counts among the criteria for rescue “the existence of a request for assistance, although such a request shall not be the sole factor for determining the existence of a distress situation.”

The other factors for a rescue read like a description of last week’s shipwreck. Among the criteria: “The seaworthiness of the vessel and the likelihood that the vessel will not reach its final destination,” “the number of persons on board in relation to the type and condition of the vessel,” and “the availability of necessary supplies such as fuel, water and food to reach a shore.”

They also include: “the presence of qualified crew and command of the vessel,” “the availability and capability of safety, navigation and communication equipment,” “the presence of persons on board in urgent need of medical assistance,” “the presence of deceased persons on board,” and “the presence of pregnant women or of children on board.”

As of Monday the authorities had recovered 81 bodies, and had transferred most of the 104 survivors from a hospital in Kalamata, a port in southwestern Greece, to a reception center north of Athens, where access is restricted.

In Pakistan on Monday, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared a day of mourning for the 104 Pakistanis already locally confirmed dead, though officials expect the toll to rise.

Many of the missing were from the Pakistani-administered part of Kashmir, the region long contested between India and Pakistan, and nearby in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province. Mr. Sharif said Sunday on Twitter that law-enforcement agencies had been asked “to tighten the noose around individuals involved in the heinous act of human smuggling.”

United Nations officials have called for an investigation into what went wrong at sea.

The shipwreck occurred during a caretaker government in Greece ahead of elections on Sunday, dulling the political impact. Still, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, projected by polls to win re-election as prime minister, and whose harsh line on migrants has proved popular at home and in the European Union, laid the blame entirely on the human traffickers.

“As stunned as we are, we should also be outraged at the wretched smugglers, at those scum,” he said while campaigning in Gytheio in the southern Peloponnese on Saturday.

But the account of the Greek government has shifted over recent days. At first, the Coast Guard denied having ever tied ropes onto the fishing boat, which some survivors claimed was the cause of the shipwreck. Then the Coast Guard acknowledged that it had tied one rope briefly to ascertain the condition of the boat and passengers, some of whom, survivors said, were already dead from exposure and thirst.

The Greeks have said they wanted to stabilize the boat while critics have expressed fears that the Greeks may have been trying to tow the migrants out of their jurisdiction.

A migrant advocacy group, Alarm Phone , said that as early as noon on Tuesday, it had received calls that the vessel was in distress and that it had relayed this information to the authorities. The Greeks say that in their communications with the vessel throughout the day they were told the ship intended to sail to Italy.

The BBC also reported that a merchant ship, the Lucky Sailor, had confirmed it diverted course after being asked by the Greek Coast Guard to give the trawler food and water. According to court documents obtained by The New York Times, another ship, the Faithful Warrior, arrived about two-and-a-half hours later, and at 9:30 p.m. provided passengers with food and water. Migrants could be heard chanting “Italia, Italia.”

At 9:45 p.m. the Faithful Warrior’s captain, Panagiotis Konstantinidis, reported to the Hellenic Search and Rescue Center control center that the trawler was “rocking dangerously” because of the overcrowding on the decks. A few minutes later passengers threw supplies into the sea.

According to the documents, an official on Coast Guard Vessel 920 reported the fishing boat as having stopped at 11:45 p.m., which is when, he said, the sailors threw it a rope.

“Voices were heard in English — ‘No help, Go Italy’— and despite repeated appeals asking them if they wanted help, they ignored us and at around 23:57 they released the rope. They started the boat’s engine again and moved in a westerly direction at low speed.”

According to Mr. Konstantinidis’s testimony, the control center dismissed his ship from its relief mission at 12:18 a.m. and instructed it to leave the area. A woman who answered the phone at the shipping firm that owns the Greek cargo ship Faithful Warrior said that the Coast Guard had told the firm not to comment and to direct inquiries to the Coast Guard.

“The Coast Guard still claims that during these hours the boat was on a course to Italy and not in need of rescue,” the BBC reported.

In the court documents, the Coast Guard official noted in neat and apparently uninterrupted handwriting on his deck log, that at 1:40 a.m. the ship stopped moving again and the Coast Guard approached to assess the situation and prepared for the possibility of a rescue. But 26 minutest later, at 2:06 a.m., he reported that the ship “had begun to take a great inclination to the right side, and there was great upheaval and screams.”

“Within a few seconds the vessel capsized, resulting in the people on the external deck to fall in the sea, and the vessel to sink.”

Jason Horowitz and Niki Kitsantonis reported from Athens, and Matina Stevis-Gridneff from Brussels. Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting from Siena, Italy.

Jason Horowitz is the Rome bureau chief, covering Italy, the Vatican, Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. He previously covered the 2016 presidential campaign, the Obama administration and Congress, with an emphasis on political profiles and features. More about Jason Horowitz

Matina Stevis-Gridneff is the Brussels bureau chief, leading coverage of the European Union. She joined The Times in 2019. More about Matina Stevis-Gridneff

Niki Kitsantonis is a freelance correspondent for The Times based in Athens. She has been writing about Greece for 20 years, including more than a decade of coverage for The Times. More about Niki Kitsantonis

Huge search continues for survivors of migrant boat sinking off Greece, hundreds feared dead

With its human cargo of migrants filling every available space, the battered blue trawler was about halfway from Libya to Italy when its engine cut out in the night.

Key points:

• More than 500 migrants are believed to have been on board a trawler which sunk off Greece on Wednesday
• Rescuers have saved 104 people and recovered 79 bodies so far
• Greece's coast guard says efforts to assist the boat prior to its sinking had been knocked back

The vessel wobbled sharply, flooded and capsized. Less than 15 minutes later, it sank into one of the Mediterranean's deepest points, off the coast of Greece.

Hundreds of people are thought to have been on board when the boat went down on Wednesday , although authorities have no precise figure.

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

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.

"It's one of the biggest [such] operations ever in the Mediterranean," Greek coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou told state ERT TV.

"We won't stop looking."

EU commissioner calls for safe pathways

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 autocrat Moamar Gaddafi.

The instability allowed migrant smugglers to make Libya one of the main departure points for people seeking a better life in Europe.

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," Mr 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.

Vessel refused help, pressed on to Italy

Greece's coast guard said it was notified by Italian authorities of the trawler's presence in international waters.

Efforts by its own ships and merchant vessels to assist the boat were repeatedly rebuffed, it said, with people on board insisting they wanted to continue to Italy.

"They categorically refused any help," the coast guard's Mr Alexiou said.

Vincent Cochetel, an official with the UN refugee agency UNHCR, implied that the migrants' rejection of help should not have been taken at face value.

"This boat was unseaworthy and no matter what some people on board may have said, the notion of distress cannot be discussed," he tweeted.

"A robust and predictable [search and rescue] regime led by states is needed in the Central Med if we want to avoid such tragedies to repeat."

An aerial photograph of the vessel released by the coast guard showed scores of people covering practically every inch of the 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," Mr 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.

Greece's caretaker prime minister, Ioannis Sarmas, declared three days of national mourning.

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."

World's deadliest migration route

The sinking could be one of the worst ever recorded on the feared central Mediterranean migration route, which is the world's deadliest.

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.

In February, at least 94 people died when a wooden boat from Türkiye sank off Cutro , in southern Italy, in the worst Mediterranean sinking so far this year.

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.

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