“They were just asking to be rescued,” says an activist who contacted the migrant boat before it sank in Greece

The third and last day of the unsuccessful search for survivors of one of the most tragic shipwrecks of migrants in the Mediterranean, the performance The Greek Coast Guard is in the crosshairs. To criticism for his decision to do not intervene At the same time he spotted the overloaded boat on Tuesday afternoon, after pointing out that the migrants were repeatedly refusing help — which other sources denied — testimonies now point to the fact that the fishing boat Adriana capsized when the Coast Guard they tried to drag him away with a rope.

an activist Nawal Sufi, the first person to contact the fishing boat immediately before the fatal accident, assured that “all wanted refugees should be saved” and that they do not mind disembarking in Greece or anywhere. On his Facebook profile, he states that among the calls he received on June 13 was the one v A 20-year-old Syrian woman who was trapped in a warehouse with other women and children. In the second of the calls, they informed him that there were on board six corpses people who fell ill during the crossing from the Libyan city of Tobruk.

The question for now without a clear answer is which caused the shipwreck in the waters of the Ionian Sea about 78 kilometers from the Greek port of Pylos. If on Thursday the Greek media said that the panic among the passengers due to engine failure caused the sinking, this Friday they pointed to the fact that the fishing boat capsized after the Coast Guard tried to pull it with a rope on the left side, then “the boat turned to the right and suddenly sank,” said Tasos Polijronópulos, a councilor from Kalamata, the closest port to the sinking site, after speaking with the survivor.

The Coast Guard and the government contradict each other

A spokesman for the Coast Guard Nikos Alexiouhe denied those allegations by stating that “There was never a tethering attempt” with a fishing boat However, a few hours later, a spokesman for the interim government, Ilias Siakandaris, told public broadcaster ERT that the coast guard that they used a rope “hold on and get close [al barco]to see if they want help.

On Thursday, nine people, alleged human traffickers, all of Egyptian origin, were arrested and accused of being part of a criminal organization. For each passenger, the smugglers allegedly took between 4,000 and 6,000 euros. The ship left Egypt before arriving at the port of Tobruk, a city in eastern Libya, heading for Italy. According to the first estimates of the Coast Guard and based on testimonies, the number of people the number of missing persons is 568.

The rest of the rescued were transferred this Friday from the port city of Kalamata in the Peloponnese, to the Malakas reception camp, outside of Athens, should be identified.