9 Egyptians appearing in Greek court over deadly migrant shipwreck

A group of men wait at the turnstiles and speak with survivors, mostly from Pakistan, of a deadly migrant boat sinking at a migrant camp in Malakasa north of Athens, on Monday, June 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

ATHENS, Greece -

Nine Egyptian men accused of being members of a human smuggling ring involved in one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean are appearing in court in southern Greece on Tuesday for questioning over their alleged role in the disaster.

The nine, appearing in court in the southern city of Kalamata, face a string of charges including participation in a criminal organization, manslaughter and causing a shipwreck.

More than 500 people are believed to be missing from last week's sinking off the western coast of Greece of the dilapidated fishing trawler, which some estimates say had been carrying up to 750 people, as it travelled from Libya to Italy.

So far 81 bodies have been recovered and 104 people, all men, have been rescued. A search and rescue operation continues in the area, but chances of locating any further survivors are exceedingly slim.

The suspects were reportedly identified as having been involved in sailing the ship by testimonies provided by over the weekend by nine Syrian and Pakistani survivors.

Five other suspects were arrested in Pakistan, where police launched a crackdown this week on human smuggling after 12 Pakistani nationals were identified among the survivors, officials in Islamabad said Tuesday. Some of the suspects confessed to sending some of the Pakistanis who were on the sunken boat, they said.

Relatives of at least 124 people in Pakistan have contacted authorities to find out about missing loved ones believed to be on the trawler, the officials said. It is unclear how many Pakistanis were on the vessel.

Some survivors have said the trawler had been under tow by another vessel just before it sank. Greek officials have insisted the coast guard did not tow the trawler at any point, and only briefly had a line attached to it hours before it capsized and sank in international waters in the early hours of June 14.

The coast guard has also been widely criticized for not trying to rescue the migrants before their vessel sank. It argued that they refused any assistance and insisted on proceeding to Italy, adding that it would have been too dangerous to try and evacuate hundreds of unwilling people off an overcrowded ship.

The full details remain unclear. Photos and videos taken hours before the sinking show people crammed on all available open spaces of the trawler. Survivors have said the ship's interior was also packed with people, including many women and children.

One survivor, Ali Sheikhi from the northeast Syrian town of Kobani, told Kurdish TV Rudaw that he and other relatives from Kobani had agreed to pay smugglers $4,000 each for the trip, a sum later increased to $4,500. His relatives included a younger brother who died.

Speaking late Sunday by phone from a closed reception centre near Athens where survivors had been taken, he told the TV the smugglers didn't allow anyone to bring lifejackets, and threw whatever food the passengers had into the sea. He said he and his travelling companions were directed to the ship's hold, but that he managed to get out onto the deck after paying extra money to the smugglers.

By the time the ship sank, they had been at sea for five days. Water ran out after a day and a half, and he said some passengers resorted to drinking seawater.

Crucially, Sheikhi said the trawler went down after its engine broke down and another vessel tried to tow it.

"In the pulling, (the trawler) sank," he said. "We don't know who it belonged to." Similar claims have been made by other survivors in accounts posted on social media, and other survivors were anonymously quoted in Syrian media Monday saying the ship was being towed.

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Associated Press wrtier Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this story.