People smugglers have led yet more illegal migrants to their deaths Wednesday as at least 79 people have been confirmed to have drowned after a ship, described as being around 80 to 100 feet in length, capsized off the Greek coast near Pylos in the south of the country.
At least 104 people have been reported as rescued by Greek authorities, who have mobilized the navy, coast guard, and merchant vessels in order to locate potential survivors of the shipwreck but so far it is unclear how many illegal migrants were aboard the vessel, the Greek newspaper Ekathimerini reports.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has claimed that the large boat may have been completely full and that as many as 400 people were aboard, meaning that hundreds remain missing in the Mediterranean Sea.
Others, including the activist network Alarm Phone, reported that a vessel in the same area with 750 people put out a distress call but it remains unknown if the distress call came from the vessel that sank or not.
Greek authorities stated that none of the migrants who have been found so far were wearing life jackets and those who survived managed to cling to floating debris, with 25 of the survivors, aged between 16 and 49, hospitalised with hypothermia.
Of the 79 victims of the shipwreck, 35 are Syrians, 30 are said to be Egyptian nationals, 10 are Pakistanis, and at least two are Palestinians.
The ship is believed to have deported North Africa from Libya and was planned to arrive on the Italian coast, rather than Greece.
The shipwreck is shaping up to be the single deadliest in the Mediterranean Sea so far this year and appears likely to surpass the death toll of another shipwreck off the coast of Italy in which at least 67 people lost their lives.
Migrants trying to get to Europe often pay large sums to people smugglers, who, in turn, put them on overcrowded boats that are often not seaworthy. Migrants on the boat that sank earlier this year in Italy reportedly paid as much as €8,000 each for the voyage.
The business of profiting off of the misery of migrants nets people smugglers millions of euros per year, according to the European Union border agency Frontex.
Former Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the leader of the centre-right New Democracy party commented on the tragedy saying it “dramatically highlights how migration is a problem that requires a cohesive European policy, so that the vile criminal networks that smuggle desperate people at last meet with the decisive response that they deserve.”
The Central Mediterranean migrant route has frequently been the most dangerous sea route to Europe in recent years, with UNHCR statistics showing that last year 1,453 migrants were reported missing or dead.
The number of migrants leaving North Africa for Italy has also rapidly increased in the first months of 2023 compared to the same period last year with 51,000 illegal migrants arriving in Italy from January-May compared to just 19,400 in 2022.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has vowed to decrease the number of illegal arrivals, recently holding meetings with top Tunisian government officials in a bid to stem the flow of departures.
