Greece: 9 arrested for human smuggling as search continues for survivors of sank migrant vessel

Authorities in Greece have detained nine persons, all Egyptian nationals, for piloting the fishing vessel crammed with migrants which sank off the Greek coast on Wednesday. Considered to be one of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean, authorities have confirmed the death of 78 persons and several hundreds missing.

According to reports, upto 100 children were travelling in the ship's hold. The Guardian reported that the accused, aged between 20 and 40, were suspected of masterminding the illegal voyage of hundreds of people to Italy from Libya after first setting out from Egypt with the trawler. The publication quoted Nikos Alexiou, the Hellenic coastguard spokesperson as saying, “They are in custody and will appear before a local magistrate. They are being held by the coastguard in Kalamata.”

According to reports, the ship's captain died in the incident. Authorities expected to press several charges, including mass murder, against suspects.

Greece's coast guard launched its third and final day of a search on Friday in the area where the fishing boat sank. The round-the-clock effort continued off the coast of southern Greece despite little hope of finding survivors or bodies after none have been found since Wednesday, when 78 bodies were recovered and 104 people were rescued.

Most of the survivors were being moved Friday to migrant shelters near Athens from a storage hangar at the southern port of Kalamata, where relatives also gathered to look for loved ones.

Alexiou, citing survivors' accounts, said that passengers in the hold of the fishing boat included women and children but that the number of missing, believed to be in the hundreds, remains unclear.

The fishing boat carrying the migrants had been travelling from Libya to Italy and was being tracked by the Greek authorities as well as European Union border protection agency Frontex.

Officials at a state-run morgue outside Athens have been photographing the faces of the victims and gathering DNA samples to start the identification process.

(With PTI inputs.)