Up to 100 children could be on board the fishing boat that sank early Tuesday to Wednesday off the coast of southern Greece in one of the worst migration disasters to hit Europe in recent years.
The chances of finding more survivors vanished this Thursdaywhile criticism grew against the Greek Coast Guard for not acting properly to prevent the tragedy.
Eight vessels, including a Navy ship and a helicopter, are continuing operations southwest of the Peloponnese peninsula, where the fishing boat capsized. leaving at least 78 dead and hundreds missing.
[Tragedia en Grecia: la posibilidad de encontrar más supervivientes del naufragio disminuye]
The day before, the Coast Guard had reported 79 deaths, but this Thursday it revised the figure downward after a new count of the bodies that were found and transferred to Athens to be identified.
According to local media, between 500 and 700 immigrants could have traveled aboard the vessel 30 meters long, including many women and children, most of whom were in the hold of the old fishing boat.
But many more could still be missing at sea, according to reports handled by the British chain BBCwho is the one who points out that up to 100 children could be on board the ship.
While, international media and organizationsas well as NGOs accuse the Greek Coast Guard for not having done better to avoid what could be one of the greatest migratory tragedies in the history of the Mediterranean.
According to the Greek authorities, the coast guard had located the overloaded vessel sailing in international waters south of the Peloponnese since Tuesday.
The Coast Guard repeatedly offered to assist the trawler via satellite phone and private boats that were dispatched to the area, but the alleged perpetrators on board refused the offer of help, expressing their desire to continue the voyage to Italy.
[¿Migrantes arrojados al mar? Destapan que Grecia recurre a métodos brutales para deportarlos]
“That ship was not seaworthy and it doesn’t matter what some people on board have said”said Vincent Cochetel, special envoy of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for the western and central Mediterranean, on Thursday.
For its part, ‘Alarm Phone’, a network of activists that runs a hotline for migrant boats in danger, said in a statement that since Tuesday they had informed the authorities that the boat was in danger.
The surviving passengers reported that the captain had left the ship in a small boat before it capsizedthe activists assure the agency efe.
