Greece Concludes Search for Migrants Feared Dead in Shipwreck

The search operation led by Greece’s coast guard to locate hundreds of missing and presumed dead migrants in a shipwreck reached its final day on Friday. The incident occurred in the Mediterranean Sea when a heavily overcrowded fishing boat carrying migrants capsized and sank. Despite a relentless round-the-clock effort, authorities have not found any survivors or bodies since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued.

The ill-fated fishing boat was en route from Libya to Italy, and Greek authorities, along with the European Union border protection agency Frontex, had been monitoring its movements before the tragic accident took place early on Wednesday. According to the United Nations migration agency, the International Organization for Migration, the trawler may have accommodated up to 750 passengers.

On Friday, most of the survivors were relocated from a storage hangar in the southern port of Kalamata, where concerned relatives had gathered, to migrant shelters near Athens. As part of the ongoing investigation, nine individuals—Egyptian men aged between 20 and 40—have been apprehended and detained on charges of people smuggling and involvement in a criminal operation. Additionally, 27 survivors are receiving medical treatment in hospitals, as confirmed by health officials.

Coast guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou, drawing from survivor testimonies, mentioned that women and children were among those in the hold of the fishing boat. However, the exact number of missing individuals, believed to be in the hundreds, remains uncertain. Outside Athens, officials at a state-run morgue have begun the identification process by photographing the victims’ faces and collecting DNA samples.

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