Greece’s official account of the current migrant boat tragedy that killed 81, whereas lots of extra stay lacking, has come underneath scrutiny as extra survivors claimed that the battered trawler had been underneath tow by one other vessel simply earlier than it sank.
The new accounts raised additional questions concerning the coast guard’s response from the second it positioned the ship till it went down. Officials in Athens have insisted that the metallic fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy was at no level underneath tow, and solely had a line briefly hooked up to it hours earlier than it capsized and foundered.
The coast guard has additionally been broadly criticized for not attempting to rescue the migrants earlier than their vessel sank. It argued that they refused any help and insisted on continuing to Italy, including that it will have been too harmful to attempt to evacuate lots of of unwilling folks off an overcrowded ship. The full particulars of the incident stay unclear.
Ali Sheikhi, from war-ravaged Syria, had hoped the vessel would take him to a greater life in Europe. Then, he would ultimately convey over his spouse and three younger sons.
Instead, the ship sank in worldwide waters two hours after midnight on June 14. Only 104 survivors have been discovered thus far, and 81 our bodies recovered. But many accounts – backed by Sheikhi – say as much as 750 folks had been on board.
He advised Syrian media that he and different family, together with a youthful brother who died, had agreed to pay smugglers $4,000 every for the journey – a sum later raised to $4,500.
“We said ‘no problem,’ so long as the boat was big and in good shape,” he stated late Sunday, talking by telephone from a closed reception heart close to Athens the place survivors have been moved. “They told us we should not bring any food or anything else because it is all available on the boat.”
The smugglers did not let anybody convey lifejackets, and threw no matter meals the passengers had into the ocean, he added, echoing accounts from different survivors.
Sheikhi stated he and his companions had been directed to the ship’s maintain – a deathtrap the place lots of, together with ladies and youngsters, are believed to have drowned – however obtained onto the deck after paying more money to the smugglers.
By the time the ship sank, they’d been 5 days at sea. Water ran out after a day and a half, and a few passengers resorted to consuming seawater.
Crucially, Sheikhi stated the trawler went down after its engine broke down and one other vessel tried to tow it.
“In the pulling, (the trawler) sank,” he stated. “We don’t know who it belonged to.” Similar claims have been made by different survivors in accounts posted on social media, and different survivors had been anonymously quoted in Syrian media Monday saying the ship was being towed.
“One side went up and the people fell from there into the sea,” Sheikhi advised Rudaw. “The people started to scream” at midnight. “Every person tried to hold on to the other and pull him under so he stayed above water. I thought then no one will survive.”
Greek authorities have insisted that the ship wobbled violently earlier than sinking after an abrupt shift in place by lots of its passengers.
Asked concerning the incident as World Refugee Day was marked throughout the globe Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated: “It is horrible… and the more urgent is that we act.”
Von der Leyen, the top of the European Union’s govt arm, stated the EU ought to assist African international locations like Tunisia, the place many migrants depart for Europe, to stabilize their economies, in addition to finalize a long-awaited reform of the 27-nation bloc’s asylum guidelines.
Source: www.dailysabah.com
