Greece: At least 79 people have died and hundreds more are feared missing after a fishing boat carrying migrants capsized off the coast of Greece on Wednesday. The boat, which was believed to be carrying around 400 people, sank in international waters some 45 miles southwest of Greece’s southern Peloponnese peninsula.
The Greek coastguard said that 104 people had been rescued so far, including 30 Egyptians, 10 Pakistanis, 35 Syrians and two Palestinians. However, it is feared that many more people may have drowned, as the boat was reportedly overcrowded and did not have enough life jackets.
The disaster is the deadliest migrant shipwreck in Greece this year. It comes as the number of people trying to reach Europe from Libya has increased in recent months. Human traffickers have taken advantage of the instability in Libya to smuggle people across the Mediterranean Sea.
The Greek government has declared three days of national mourning for the victims of the disaster. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the government would do everything it could to help the survivors and to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
The European Union has also expressed its condolences to the victims of the disaster. The EU’s migration commissioner, Margaritis Schinas, said that the tragedy was a “reminder of the human cost of migration” and called for a “concerted effort” to prevent such tragedies from happening again.
The disaster has highlighted the dangers faced by migrants who attempt to reach Europe by sea. In recent years, thousands of people have died trying to make the crossing. The European Union has been criticized for its handling of the migration crisis, and the disaster is likely to put further pressure on the bloc to find a solution.
The Greek government has said that it will not abandon its efforts to help people who are fleeing war and persecution. However, the disaster has shown that the challenge of dealing with migration is complex and there is no easy solution.