His vessel inched closer and tied a rope to the ship’s bow, but some passengers responded in English “No Help” and “Go Italy,” according to news website which quotes from the captain’s deposition. Tuesday, the passengers didn’t respond to his call that he was ready to provide assistance.įive minutes later, he said, the vessel stopped moving. The captain said that during a first approach, at 11:40 p.m. The captain of the coast guard vessel that reached the trawler less than three hours before it sank has testified to investigating authorities that the passengers refused any help, Greek media reported Saturday. She said later in a voice memo that “they never expressed the will to continue sailing to Italy,” or refused assistance from Greece. Soufi’s last contact with the trawler was at 11 p.m. He stressed that none of the vessels had attempted to tow the trawler.Ĭommander Nikos Alexiou told Greek channel Ant1 TV that the coast guard wanted to check on the trawler’s condition, but people on board again refused help and untied the rope before continuing course. The other merchant vessel didn’t immediately reply to the AP’s questions.Ī spokesman for the Greek coast guard said late Friday that its vessel had briefly attached a light rope to the trawler at around 11 p.m. “Those on board the boat caught the line and pulled,” the company managing the Lucky Sailor told the AP. The report from the Lucky Sailor said that no lines were tied to the trawler, and supplies were delivered in watertight barrels tied to a rope. According to people on board, ropes were tied to the ship, destabilizing it and causing a “state of panic,” she said. Shortly after 11 p.m., she wrote that the trawler began rocking as its passengers tried to catch water bottles from another vessel. They describe sequences of events that at times converge, but also differ in key ways.Īccording to Soufi’s account, attempts to deliver supplies may have contributed to the trawler’s troubles. There are still more questions than answers about what led up to one of the worst shipwrecks in recent Mediterranean history.Īctivists, migration experts and opposition politicians have criticized Greek authorities for not acting earlier to rescue the migrants, even though a coast guard vessel escorted the trawler for hours and watched helplessly as it sank.īelow is a timeline of events based on reports from Greek authorities, a commercial ship, and activists who said they were in touch with passengers. This much is clear: On June 9, an old steel fishing trawler left eastern Libya for Italy, carrying far too many people.Īs many as 750 men, women and children from Syria, Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Pakistan were on board, fleeing hopelessness in their home countries and trying to reach relatives in Europe.įive days later, the trawler sank off the coast of Greece in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea.
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