A rescue helicopter spotted a fishing boat in the waters off the Peloponnese coast. Credit: Hellenic Coastguard/AFP via Getty Images
About 100 children fear they are stranded in the hold of a large migrant boat that sank off the coast of Greece in what is likely to be considered one of the worst migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean in recent years .
A survivor told medical staff that he saw 100 children in the hold of a former fishing boat that capsized in the Ionian Sea off the southern coast of Greece early Wednesday.
«The fishing boat was 25- 30 meters long. Its deck was full of people, and we assume that it was just as full inside,” Nikolaos Alexiou, a coast guard spokesman, told Greek television.
Smugglers sometimes lock people in the holds of their boats to maintain control of their human cargo.
The ship was en route from the Libyan port of Tobruk to Italy when its engine failed and the asylum seekers reportedly refused help from the Greek authorities .
>The confirmed death toll from the tragedy is 79, but authorities say up to 750 people were on board and predict the death toll will rise sharply.
Rescuers on Thursday combed the area where the ship sank, about 50 miles from the coastal town of Pylos.
About 100 survivors, mostly men from Syria, Pakistan and Egypt, were brought to shore.
< p>The bodies of the victims were moved to a cemetery near Athens for DNA testing.A statement from the charity Save the Children said: , increase».
A Brit fears some of his relatives have gone missing in the crash.
Aftab Khan from Wolverhampton told Sky News in the port of Kalamata that three of his cousins were on board the boat.
One was found alive and the other two have yet to be found.
«We don't know where they are Now. We're just trying to figure it out,» he said.
Greek authorities said migrants on the deck of a fishing boat repeatedly refused assistance from a Coast Guard boat that was following them, saying they wanted to get to Italy.
«When you are faced with a situation like this … you you have to be very careful what you do,” Mr. Alexiou said.
“You can’t do violent sabotage on a ship like this with so many people on board… without some kind of cooperation.
Officials said there was little chance of raising the boat because it sank in such deep water.
Greece has become the «shield of Europe»
The shipwreck is considered the deadliest in Greek waters in several years.
In February of this year, about 100 people were killed when their ship crashed into the rocks off the coast. Calabria, in the far south of Italy, in bad weather.
Alarm Phone, a volunteer organization that supports rescue operations, said there are good reasons for migrants to try to reach Italy.< /p>
“ This is because people on the road are aware of the terrible and systematic countermeasures practiced by the Greek authorities, a practice that is sanctioned by the EU,” they said.
“Greece has become the ‘shield of Europe’,” as Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, brutally restraining people on the move,” they added.
According to the UN, about 20,000 migrants and refugees have died in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous place to migrants in the world. Greece has declared three days of mourning in connection with the tragedy.
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