At least 79 people have died, and hundreds more are feared dead after a boat capsized off the Greek coast on Wednesday in what could become the country’s biggest migrant tragedy ever.
More than 100 people on the boat have been rescued, but survivors said as many as 700 people could have been on board, far surpassing the watercraft’s capacity.
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Hellenic Coast Guard Captain Nikolaos Alexiou told local television stations his colleagues had seen people packed onto the deck and that the boat had sunk in one of the deepest areas of the Mediterranean, per BBC.
The boat is thought to have been traveling from Libya to Italy, with mostly men in their 20s from Afghanistan and Pakistan aboard. A survivor told one Greek media outlet that the ship went down almost instantaneously amid strong winds near the deepest part of the sea, according to the Guardian. “The engine stopped, and it sank in minutes,” the survivor said.
Rescue operations, which have included Coast Guard vessels, a navy frigate, military transport planes, an air force helicopter, and a group of private watercraft, have been working diligently to save anyone left behind. The capsized boat was first spotted about 50 miles off the coast of Pylos in southwest Greece.
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The Coast Guard said Wednesday that its search and rescue efforts would stop once night fell and then resume in the morning. “We fear that the number of dead will rise significantly,” a spokesperson for Peloponnese official Panagiotis Nikas said, per CNN.
In Greece, illegal immigration is a contentious topic, as is the case in many countries. The government has bolstered its security protocols to discourage migrants from attempting to enter, leading many smugglers to choose Italy as a preferred destination. The overcrowding of boats making the perilous journey across the Mediterranean is also common, as it is a means for smugglers to make the most profit, but at the expense of safety.
