At Least 78 Migrants Drown After Boat Sinks Near Greece In ‘Worst Sea Tragedy’ In Recent Years
At least 78 people have drowned in a tragic incident involving a sinking refugee boat close to Greece’s shoreline.
“We are witnessing one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean and the numbers announced by the authorities are devastating,” Gianluca Rocco, IOM (International Office of Migration) of Greece Chief of Mission, said.
A rescue operation was set in motion yesterday morning by the Greek authorities, who have thus far rescued 104 individuals.
79 bodies have been retrieved, “but the death toll is likely to rise”, the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) stated in a press release.
Hundreds are still missing and “speculation is rife that as many as 600 people were onboard but that has not been confirmed. The ship is under the water. It has sunk,” said one Greek official.
Nearly all of the victims were men from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The vessel was travelling from Libya to Italy, and was spotted about 50 miles from Pyrgos.
Following the incident, Greece’s government announced a period of three days for national mourning in remembrance of the tragedy.
“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,” Rocco expressed.
A UNHCR team has reached the town of Kalamata, where the survivors have been taken, with the purpose of evaluating their requirements and providing assistance to both the survivors and the local authorities.
They also supplied them with food.
“IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has documented at least 26,924 deaths in the Mediterranean since 2014,” the press release read.
“UNHCR and IOM call on States to cooperate to increase safe pathways and ensure coordinated search and rescue at sea, while working together on finding collective solutions, to avoid the needless loss of more lives.”
What do you make of this tragedy? Should more be done to safeguard migrants’ lives?
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