ATHENS: Dozens of settlers tragically lost their lives on Wednesday in one of the deadliest disasters of the time in Europe. The incident passed off the seacoast of Greece when an overloaded boat carrying settlers overturned and sank. At least 79 individuals drowned, and some enterprises further are still missing.
By noon, authorities reported that 104 people had been saved, but the number of passengers on board the vessel remained unclear. It was revealed that the seacoast guard had offered to return to the boat’s inhabitants the previous night, but they had declined the help.
A shipping ministry functionary, who preferred to remain anonymous, expressed fear that the death risk might increase. Greece is a primary entry point to the European Union for deportees and settlers from Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. While utmost settlers cross from Turkey to Greek islets, an adding number bears an unsafe trip from Turkey to Italy via Greece.
According to state broadcaster ERT, the ill-fated boat departed from Tobruk, a Libyan city located south of the Greek islet of Crete, with Italy as its intended destination. This tragic event marks the deadliest shipwreck off Greece this time and ranks among the worst in Europe. In a former incident during February, 96 people lost their lives when their rustic boat crashed into jewels off Italy’s Calabrian seacoast during a storm.
Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Deportees, called on governments to unite in establishing safe pathways for individuals escaping poverty and conflict. He expressed his grief and wrathfulness on Twitter” Only sadness and wrathfulness after another deadly tragedy at the ocean in the Mediterranean.”
A caretaker administration presently governs Greece in medication for a public election on June 25. The Greek seacoast guard reported that the EU border agency Frontex first spotted the boat late on Tuesday in transnational waters roughly 50 long hauls( 80 km) southwest of Pylos, a southern Greek littoral city.
The seacoast guard vessel approached the boat en route to Italy and offered to back. Still, the settlers on the boat’s external sundeck refused help and intended to continue the trip.
The boat overturned and sank many hours latterly, leading to a hunt and deliverance operation. ERT reported that most of those on board were youthful men in their twenties. While the shipping ministry functionary stated that the utmost settlers hailed from Egypt, Syria, and Pakistan, the Greek authorities have yet to confirm the boat’s harborage of departure.
Survivors were transported to Kalamata, where the country’s chairman, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, was anticipated to visit. Greece was at the van of Europe’s migration extremity in 2015 when nearly one million people arrived on its islets from Turkey, ultimately heading toward fat European nations.
Still, the number of advents has significantly dropped since a 2016 agreement between Brussels and Ankara aimed at bridling the inflow. The former conservative government, led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, attributed the decline to a strict policy that included increased border details and heavily surveilled migratory camps.
According to United Nations data, roughly 72,000 deportees and settlers have arrived in Europe’s Mediterranean frontline countries this time, with the maturity wharf in Italy and around 6,500 reaching Greece. Tragically, the UN estimates that in 2023, close to 1,000 people would have perished or vanished in the Mediterranean.
