At least 79 people have died and hundreds are missing after an overcrowded boat carrying migrants to Europe capsized and sank off the Greek coast in the early hours of Wednesday, June 14.
The search and rescue mission in the Ionian sea, 47 nautical miles (87 km) off the Greek coast, was still ongoing on Thursday and the number of dead is expected to rise. So far, 104 persons have been rescued and taken to Kalamata in Greece.
According to unconfirmed reports, between 500 and 750 migrants were on the small fishing boat which is believed to have taken off from Tobruk, a city in eastern Libya, and was heading to Italy.
Yesterday, we were alerted by a boat in distress in the Greek SAR zone. It had left from #Libya. According to the people, there were 750 people on board. Authorities were alerted. Contact was lost shortly after midnight. We now hear reports of a shipwreck and fear they are true. pic.twitter.com/NTyhmTIHQD
— Alarm Phone (@alarm_phone) June 14, 2023
Most of the 104 survivors are from West Asian and North-African countries such as Egypt, Syria, and Palestine, with some coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan as well.
The Alarm Phone, an NGO working with migrant ships in the region, has refuted the Greek rescue mission’s claim that the people on the migrant ship had refused their assistance before it sank. In a statement, the organization claimed that despite alerting the Greek and European authorities on time about the overcrowded ship heading towards Italy, the rescue operation was still delayed.
The sinking of the migrant boat is feared to be one of the worst ever such incidents in the Central Mediterranean region, already the world’s most dangerous route for migrants according to the Missing Migrant Project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
EU border control policies responsible
Eleni Spathana, a lawyer with the Greek NGO Refugee Support Aegean, told Al-Jazeera that such tragedies are “a side effect of the deterrent EU policies and all these efforts—no matter what—to keep the people in need of protection and support outside the EU territory.”
UNHCR Greece and the IOM in a joint statement said that the deaths on Wednesday were “avoidable” and called for “more safe pathways for people forced to flee.”
Hundreds of refugees and migrants feared dead & missing in worst sea tragedy off Greece in recent years.
79 bodies retrieved so far, but the death toll is likely to rise.
UNHCR and @IOMGREECE call for safe pathways, coordinated search & rescue at sea. https://t.co/pJegnpLXIp
— UNHCR Greece (@UNHCRGreece) June 14, 2023
EU’s border control policies have been held responsible for the rise in the number of migrants dying or missing at sea in the region. They have also given a boost to human trafficking as people are smuggled on overcrowded and unsafe boats which often leads to accidents. There is also systemic human rights abuse of refugees and asylum seekers in countries such as Libya.
Over 21,000 migrants have reportedly died or gone missing in the Central Mediterranean region since 2014, out of a total of nearly 27,000 in the entire Mediterranean region, according to the IOM.
IOM also reported that the first quarter of 2023 was the deadliest on record for migrants in the Central Mediterranean region since 2017, with over 441 migrants either dead or missing between January 1 and March 31.
