Nine men suspected of crewing a migrant smuggling ship that sank off Greece leaving more than 500 missing appeared in court Tuesday for questioning, as new accounts emerged on the sinking and the appalling conditions on the trip from Libya towards Italy.
The Egyptian suspects face charges that include participation in a criminal organization, manslaughter and causing a shipwreck. The hearing took place in Greece's southern city of Kalamata.
Only 104 men and youths -- Egyptians, Pakistanis, Syrians and Palestinians -- survived one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea early on June 14; 82 bodies have been recovered, the last late Tuesday as a large search continued for a seventh day.
Survivors said women and children were trapped in the hold as the ship capsized and sank within minutes to one of the deepest spots in the Mediterranean.
New survivor accounts emerged Tuesday confirming that about 750 people paid thousands of dollars each for a berth on the battered blue fishing trawler, seeking a better life in Europe.
In sworn testimonies provided over the weekend, and seen by The Associated Press, survivors described shocking conditions on the five-day journey. Most of the passengers were denied food and water, and those who couldn't bribe the crew to get out of the hold were beaten if they tried to reach deck level.
The testimonies also echoed previous accounts that the steel-hulled trawler sank in calm seas during a botched attempt to tow it. This clashes with the Greek coast guard's insistence that neither its patrol boat that escorted the trawler in its last hours nor any other vessel attached a tow rope.
"The Greek ship cast a rope and it was tied to our bows," survivor Abdul Rahman Alhaz said in his sworn testimony. "Then we moved forward, but not for more than two minutes. We shouted `stop, stop!' because our boat was listing. (It) was in bad shape and overloaded, and shouldn't have been towed."
Alhaz, a 24-year-old Palestinian from Syria, said he paid US$4,000 to board the ship at Tobruk in eastern Libya. He said the "people in charge" on the trawler were all Egyptians, and recognized seven suspects from pictures Greek authorities showed him.
"Most of the Pakistanis were in the hold, and were lost with the boat," he said. "One of the crew had told me there were more than 400 Pakistanis on the boat, and only 11 were saved."
These didn't include the wife and two children of Rana Husnain Neseer, 23, who were in the hold. Neseer himself, who said he paid 7,000 euros for the trip, traveled on deck.
"About 750 people were on board," he said. "(The crew) didn't give us food or water, and hit us with a belt to keep us from standing up."
Neseer said other passengers told him that a tow line was attached by a "big ship" just before the sinking. He didn't see that "as I was bent low and praying."
But he felt the vessel sharply list. "We all went to the other side to balance it, which made our boat tilt in the other direction and sink," added Neseer, who recognized four of the survivors as crew members.
Fellow Pakistani Azmat Khan Muhammad Salihu, 36, identified three suspects, including one who hit him when he tried to leave the hold, and one who struck passengers with a belt.
Being in the hold, he had no first-hand account of why the ship sank and said there were no women and children in his section below decks.
"I was saved because I found an opening and got out," his testimony said. "I called to the others to follow me but ... nobody managed to escape"
Greece has been widely criticized for not trying to save the migrants before the sinking in international waters. Officials in Athens say the passengers refused any help 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.
Asked about the incident as World Refugee Day was marked across the globe Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: "It is horrible, what happened, and the more urgent is that we act."
Von der Leyen, the head of the European Union's executive arm, said the EU should help African countries like Tunisia, where many migrants leave for Europe, to stabilize their economies, as well as finalize a long-awaited reform of the 27-nation bloc's asylum rules.
She did not, however, mention Libya, from where the doomed trawler and many similarly overloaded Europe-bound boats depart across the particularly dangerous Mediterranean migration route.
Five other human smuggling suspects were arrested in Pakistan this week and some allegedly confessed to sending some of the Pakistanis who were on the trawler, officials in Islamabad said Tuesday.
Relatives of at least 124 people in Pakistan have contacted authorities to find out about missing loved ones believed to have been on the trawler, the officials said.
The full details of the sinking remain unclear. Photos and videos from before the sinking show people crammed on all available open spaces of the trawler.
One survivor, Ali Sheikhi from the northeast Syrian town of Kobani, told Kurdish TV news channel Rudaw that the smugglers didn't allow life jackets and threw whatever food the passengers had into the sea.
Speaking late Sunday by phone from a closed reception center near Athens where survivors were taken, Sheikhi said he was directed to the hold but paid the smugglers to got out onto deck.
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.
Sheikhi also 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.
Canada will sharply lower the number of immigrants it allows into the country for the first time in years, marking a notable shift in policy for the government as it tries to remain in power.
The president and CEO of New Brunswick-based Covered Bridge Potato Chips is taking an 'extended leave of absence' after being charged with domestic violence this past weekend.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Liberal party is 'strong and united,' despite efforts from within his caucus to oust him as leader.
A memorial is growing outside a Walmart in Halifax after a 19-year-old employee was found dead inside an oven in the store Saturday night.
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Turkiye鈥檚 air force struck Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday in apparent retaliation for an attack at a key state-run defence company that killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others.
Abousfian Abdelrazik told a court Wednesday about the roller-coaster of emotions he experienced during the tense days of early 2009 when he awaited the green light to return to Canada from Sudan.
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The president and CEO of New Brunswick-based Covered Bridge Potato Chips is taking an 'extended leave of absence' after being charged with domestic violence this past weekend.
He is a familiar face to residents of a neighbourhood just west of Roncesvalles Avenue.
The Bank of Canada made a sizable cut to its key lending rate Wednesday from 4.25 per cent to 3.75 per cent as the global economy continues to expand. The half percentage point cut is the fourth rate cut in a row by the central bank as inflation dropped from 2.7 per cent in June to 1.6 per cent in September.
In part two of a four-part investigation into the seedy underbelly of the lucrative clothing donation bin industry, CTV W5 uses trackers tp reveal a for-profit operation masquerading as a charity.
Turkiye鈥檚 air force struck Kurdish militant targets in Iraq and Syria on Wednesday in apparent retaliation for an attack at a key state-run defence company that killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others.
The Justice Department warned Elon Musk鈥檚 America PAC in recent days that his US$1 million sweepstakes to registered voters in swing states may violate federal law, people briefed on the matter told CNN.
Three people were found dead Wednesday and four others were hospitalized after an 'unexplained' incident at a care home in southern England, police said.
The U.S. said Wednesday that 3,000 North Korean troops have deployed to Russia and are training at several locations, calling the move very serious and warning that those forces will be 'fair game' if they go into combat in Ukraine.
A homemade firebomb exploded inside a public high school in Chile on Wednesday, igniting a blaze that injured at least 34 students and one teacher, with several in serious condition, firefighters said.
An Indiana man has been sentenced to life in prison for the 1975 killing of a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in a river after she failed to return home from her job at a church camp.
Canada will sharply lower the number of immigrants it allows into the country for the first time in years, marking a notable shift in policy for the government as it tries to remain in power.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the Liberal party is 'strong and united,' despite efforts from within his caucus to oust him as leader.
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American singer-songwriter Matthew Sweet suffered a stroke while on tour in Toronto earlier this month, and a GoFundMe campaign has been launched to raise money to cover the 'overwhelming' health-care costs.
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Starbucks Corp suspended its forecast through the next fiscal year as new CEO Brian Niccol looks to turn around the coffee giant struggling with falling demand for its pricey drinks.
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Air Transat says it is laying off as many as 400 flight attendants, but plans to bring them back to work at some point.
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The Saskatchewan Roughriders along with other Canadian Football League [CFL] clubs have announced their player nominations for the 2024 league awards.
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An oil salvage operation is underway on the fragile wreckage of a U.S. army transport ship that sank almost 80 years ago off coastal British Columbia in a race to head off an eruption of thousands of litres of oil that a coast guard official says is "near imminent."
Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau says the starting place to supporting whichever party comes to power in British Columbia is her party's platform.
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Nearly two years after a man was stabbed to death in downtown Kelowna, RCMP have made an arrest in the case.
As part of anniversary celebrations, the City of Lethbridge is inviting the community to see VisitLethbridge.com Arena like they never have before.
A design plan is now underway to increase the capacity of Lethbridge's Water Treatment Plant.
Following community feedback, times for WestJet flights between Medicine Hat and Calgary are changing.
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The union representing the fire rangers with the Ministry of Natural Resources says money won鈥檛 fix the systemic problems in the workplace.
Rallies by a group called Voices Against Violence took place across the country on Monday, including Sault Ste. Marie.
Investigators found the remains of a 77-year-old American man on Wednesday at the scene of a fire that destroyed a hotel in western Newfoundland earlier on the weekend.
Police in western Newfoundland say a 77-year-old man visiting the province from Kansas is missing after a fire at a hotel in Deer Lake, N.L.
At 2 p.m. on Thursday, the scene at the Lions Club in Clarenville, N.L., rivalled any rowdy St. John's bar that thumps with music late on a weekend night.
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