As death toll rises to 81, new accounts clash with official version of migrant disaster off Greece
Malakasa (Greece) (AP): The number of confirmed victims from one of the worst migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean rose to 81 Monday after three more bodies were found off southern Greece, as more survivors claimed that the battered trawler had been under tow by another vessel just before it sank with hundreds of people aboard.
The new accounts raised further questions about the Greek coast guard's response from the moment it located the ship until it went down.
Officials in Athens have insisted that the metal fishing boat carrying migrants from Libya to Italy was at no point under tow, and only had a line briefly attached to it hours before it capsized and foundered.
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 of the incident remain unclear.
Ali Sheikhi, a Kurdish man from the war-scarred town of Kobani in northeast Syria, had hoped the vessel would take him to a better life in Europe. Then, he would eventually bring over his wife and three young sons.
Instead, the ship sank in international waters two hours after midnight on June 14. Only 104 survivors have been found so far, and 81 bodies recovered. But many accounts backed by Sheikhi say up to 750 people were on board.
He told Kurdish TV Rudaw that he and other relatives from Kobani, including a younger brother who died, had agreed to pay smugglers USD 4,000 each for the trip a sum later raised to USD 4,500.
"We said 'no problem,' so long as the boat was big and in good shape," he told Rudaw late Sunday, speaking by phone from a closed reception centre near Athens where survivors have been moved. "They told us we should not bring any food or anything else because it is all available on the boat."
The smugglers didn't let anyone bring lifejackets, and threw whatever food the passengers had into the sea, he added, echoing accounts from other survivors. Sheikhi said he and his companions were directed to the ship's hold a deathtrap where hundreds, including women and children, are believed to have drowned but got onto the deck after paying extra money to the smugglers.
By the time the ship sank, they had been five days at sea. Water ran out after a day and a half, and 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.
"One side went up and the people fell from there into the sea," Sheikhi told Rudaw. "The people started to scream" in the dark. "Every person tried to hold on to the other and pull him under so he stayed above water. I thought then no one will survive."
Greek authorities have insisted that the ship wobbled violently before sinking after an abrupt shift in position by many of its passengers.
A Greek navy frigate, with four other vessels and two aircraft continued to search the area Monday, and recovered three more bodies the first found since Wednesday that raised the confirmed toll to 81.
In the southern port of Kalamata, where survivors were initially taken, a court postponed for Tuesday a hearing for nine Egyptian alleged crew members of the trawler. The men face multiple charges including negligent manslaughter and people smuggling.
The court gave the suspects and their lawyers time to review the testimonies of nine Syrian and Pakistani survivors, provided over the weekend.
Meanwhile, passengers' relatives who flew in from several European countries arrived at the migrant center in Malakasa, north of Athens, trying to track down family members known to have been on the boat. About 20 people were allowed into a restricted area next to the facility: they spoke to relatives through the fence, passing them documents, snacks and soft drinks.
Zohaib Shamraiz, a Pakistani man living in Barcelona, didn't know if his 40-year-old uncle, Nadeem Muhamm, was alive five days after the perilous trip.
"I spoke to him five minutes before he got on the boat. I told him not to go. I was afraid. He said he had no choice," Shamraiz told The Associated Press.
In their last conversation, Muhamm described being herded onto the ship with others by smugglers carrying swords, Shamraiz said. "He told me there were too many people but if the (passengers) didn't get on the ship, they would kill them."
Shamraiz travelled to Greece Monday attempting to trace his uncle and to provide a DNA sample to crossmatch the ones retrieved from recovered bodies.
"I tried to find news. I checked the news in Pakistan and everywhere I could find. I had to come to find my uncle," he said. His uncle, who had been travelling alone, is married and has three young children in Pakistan.
He is very poor and he was trying to help his family have a better life, Shamraiz said.
The other survivors, all men and youths, were from Egypt, Syria and the Palestinian territories.
Duccio Staderini, a senior official for Greece at the Doctors Without Frontiers (MSF) international charity, said smuggling networks were growing stronger due to migration "bottlenecks" resulting from Europe's tight border policies.
"The smugglers, these criminal networks are emerging because of these bottlenecks," he told The AP after visiting survivors in Malakasa. "And it's getting worse and worse, and uglier and uglier."
In a separate incident Monday, Greece's coast guard said 68 people were rescued in the eastern Aegean Sea after the sailboat they were on sent a distress signal off the coast of the island of Leros.
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BJP accuses CM Siddaramaiah of 'misleading' public on govt job figures
Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka BJP president B Y Vijayendra on Wednesday lashed out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, accusing him of "misleading" the public on government recruitment figures and "failing" to address the concerns of unemployed youth in the state.
In a detailed post on his X handle, Vijayendra alleged that the Congress-led government was attempting to deflect accountability by blaming the previous BJP administration instead of initiating concrete steps to fill vacant posts.
“Chief Minister, please refrain from misleading the people. Do not attempt to shift the blame for all your shortcomings onto the BJP and evade responsibility. Your administration has earned a reputation for arrogance, corruption and mismanagement,” Vijayendra said, adding that students and youth were not naïve enough to be swayed by what he termed as "exaggerated claims".
Vijayendra's response came following Siddaramaiah's statement on Tuesday blaming BJP for the huge backlog of government job vacancies.
The CM had said that when Congress assumed office in 2023, over 2.64 lakh government posts were vacant.
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The backlog resulted from prolonged inaction under the previous BJP government, which failed to initiate timely recruitment or create a structured roadmap, he said.
As thousands of government job aspirants staged a massive protests in Dharwad on Tuesday demanding filling the vacant posts immediately, Siddaramaiah accused BJP leaders of "misleading students for political gains" and said recruitment irregularities and alleged corruption between 2019 and 2023 had eroded trust in the system, leading to the current crisis.
Questioning the government’s public statements on employment generation, Vijayendra referred to figures tabled in the Legislative Assembly.
“According to the official figures presented by your own government in the Legislative Assembly, only 8,157 government recruitments have been completed during your three years in office. Yet publicly claiming that 40,000 posts have been filled raises serious concerns. Does this not amount to misleading the unemployed youth of the state?” the Shikaripura MLA asked.
The BJP leader also raised the issue of large-scale vacancies in government departments, claiming that lakhs of posts remained unfilled even after the Congress came to power.
According to him, the state was struggling financially and questioned the delay in initiating fresh recruitment drives despite what he described as legal clarity on proceeding under the existing reservation framework.
Vijayendra further criticised the government for prioritising the accommodation of party workers and disgruntled MLAs in state-run corporations with ministerial rank and perks, while unemployed youth continued to wait for job opportunities.
“At the very least, please stop making claims that do not align with facts. Youth unrest in the state is mounting. Before matters escalate further, act with sincerity — or consider stepping down and seeking the people’s forgiveness,” the BJP state chief said.
Noting that frustration among students and job aspirants was intensifying, Vijayendra urged the CM to immediately expedite pending recruitment processes and ensure transparency in appointments.
He warned that the government would be held accountable for any fallout arising out of growing youth discontent.
