Mediterranean: Hundreds feared dead after migrant boat sinking

At least 78 migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers, have drowned and hundreds more remain missing and feared dead after their battered and overloaded boat capsized off the coast of Greece early Wednesday. Just over 100 migrants have been rescued and a massive operation to find more continues. The events have raised the question, though, of whether the tragedy, one of Europe's worst migrant disasters, could have been averted. 

Six coast guard vessels, a military helicopter and a navy frigate continued to comb the site of the tragedy, some 50 miles south of Pylos, in southeast Greece Thursday. Hopes though are fading. So far, 104 migrants have been rescued, all of them men, the majority from Egypt, Syria, Pakistan and the Palestinian territories. 

According to media reports, the boat was on its way to Italy, having set sail from the Libyan city of Tobruk. It remains unclear how many people were on board the battered 30-meter fishing boat, but initial accounts from survivors put the number as high as 750.  The International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated that at least 400 had been on board.

An image released by the Hellenic Coast Guard on June 14, 2023, showed an aerial view from a rescue helicopter of hundreds of people on board a fishing vessel in the waters off the coast of Greece on June 13, 2023. 

Worse yet, dozens of people, apparently women and children, were said to have been kept below deck, where smugglers are known to keep them locked in perilous journeys to the West.  Up to a hundred children are being among those trapped in the hold of a ship, according to survivors.

The causes of the tragedy are being investigated, but on Thursday authorities in Greece said the boat was left drifting across the Mediterranean shortly after it set sail from Libya, bound for Italy. 

“At some point, in the early phase of the journey, the boat lost its engine,” Nikos Alexiou, a spokesman for the Greek coast guard, said.  “Because it was overloaded, movement of people on deck appears to have caused it to tip over and capsize.”

Alexiou said the coast guard made several attempts to contact and approach the vessel before the tragedy, but he said any and every bid was rebuffed.  "They even refused food and aid offered by commercial vessels that sped to assist them before we got there," he said.  

Alexiou dismissed allegations that the tragedy could have been averted. “Had we forcibly intervened and tried to haul the vessel to safe waters, an even greater tragedy would have followed,” he said. 

Greece, he said, would have then been blamed for causing the tragedy.  Instead, Alexiou said, the Greek coast guard opted to watch and if they had not been close enough to act as fast as they did, he said, the tragedy might have been worse, with the number of survivors, significantly lower. 

European Union officials have expressed sadness, as they put it, over the tragedy, and called for a more united strategy to combat migrant smuggling. Human rights groups say the crackdown would simply force more migrants to seek more perilous routes to reach Europe. 

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was horrified by the reports of the shipwreck, according to his spokesman.  Briefing journalists in New York, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Wednesday the UN chief had stressed previously “that every person searching for a better life needs dignity and safety.”

“This is yet another example of the need for Member States to come together and create orderly safe pathways for people forced to flee and for comprehensive action to save lives at sea and reduce perilous journeys”, Dujarric said.

On Friday, the International Organization for Migration, and the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for urgent and decisive action to prevent further deaths at sea following the latest tragedy in the Mediterranean, calling it the worst in several years.

The duty to rescue people in distress at sea without delay is a fundamental rule of international maritime law. Both shipmasters and states have an obligation to render assistance to those in distress at sea regardless of their nationality, status or the circumstances in which they are found, including on unseaworthy vessels, and irrespective of the intentions of those onboard. 

Both UNHCR and IOM reiterated that search and rescue at sea is a legal and humanitarian imperative. 

“It is clear, that the current approach to the Mediterranean is unworkable. Year after year, it continues to be the most dangerous migration route in the world, with the highest fatality rate. States need to come together and address the gaps in proactive search and rescue, quick disembarkation, and safe regular pathways”, said Federico Soda, IOM Director for the Department of Emergencies.

“These collective efforts should have the human rights of migrants and saving lives at the center of any response.” 

The UN agencies said any action carried out with regard to search and rescue should be conducted in a manner consistent with the obligation to prevent loss of life at sea. IOM and UNHCR welcomed the investigation that has been ordered in Greece into the circumstances which eventually led to the boat capsizing and the loss of so many lives. 

“The EU must put safety and solidarity at the heart of its action in the Mediterranean. In view of the increased movements of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean, collective efforts, including greater coordination between all Mediterranean States, solidarity and responsibility-sharing, as reflected in the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum are essential to save lives”, said Gillian Triggs, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection.

“This includes the establishment of an agreed regional disembarkation and redistribution mechanism for people who arrive by sea, which we continue to advocate for”, she added. 

At least 1,289 people are recorded to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean so far this year. Overall, the IOM has documented more than 27,000 missing migrants in the Mediterranean since 2014. According to the UN agency, the Central Mediterranean is the deadliest known migration route in the world.

Some information for this report provided by VOA.

Further information

Full text: IOM and UNHCR Call for Decisive Action Following Mediterranean Tragedy, UNHCR, IOM joint press release, June 16, 2023
https://www.iom.int/news/iom-and-unhcr-call-decisive-action-following-mediterranean-tragedy