Athens, June 16 (EFE).- Hopes of finding more survivors after a fishing boat carrying hundreds of migrants and refugees capsized in the Ionian Sea off the Greek coast were fading Friday, as search and rescue efforts continued.

So far authorities have confirmed at least 78 dead and 104 survivors, including eight children, after the trawler capsized on Wednesday off the southern Greek Peloponnese peninsula.

*A migrant sits inside a bus that will take the migrants from Kalamata port to a migrant reception facility in Malakasa, Greece, 16 June 2023. EFE/EPA/YANNIS KOLESIDIS*

“At this stage, it will be extremely difficult to find anyone alive,” a spokeswoman for the Greek Coast Guard told EFE.

Search and rescue efforts continued throughout Thursday night to no avail.

According to local media, between 500 and 700 immigrants were traveling aboard the 30-meter-long boat.

Five ships, including a Navy patrol boat and helicopter, continued to comb the area on Friday but the operation has been hampered by strong winds.

*Migrants wait for their buses that will take them from Kalamata port to a migrant reception facility in Malakasa, Greece, 16 June 2023. EFE/EPA/YANNIS KOLESIDIS*

According to statements from members of the search and rescue team quoted by Greek media, the boat had departed from Egypt, docked in eastern Libya and then followed a route to Italy.

Around 100 children and many women were found in the boat’s hold, according to survivor accounts published by the local press.

Authorities on Thursday arrested nine Egyptian men who survived the accident. They now face charges of conspiring to traffic undocumented migrants, causing a shipwreck and endangering lives.

All other rescued migrants were being transferred from the port city of Kalamata to a reception camp on the outskirts of Athens, to be identified.

*Migrants walk toward a bus that will take them from Kalamata port to a migrant reception facility in Malakasa, Greece, 16 June 2023. EFE/EPA/YANNIS KOLESIDIS*

The eight rescued children will be transferred to state residential homes for minors, Greek media reported.

The Greek Coast Guard has drawn criticism from the international community and NGOs for failing to intervene once it had located the crowded boat as it sailed in international waters south of the Greek peninsula on Tuesday.

But Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiu told Skai television that “a sudden intervention to rescue a boat with many people could produce a sudden change of load, which would cause the boat to sink.”

“We remained nearby in case they needed assistance and that is what we did,” he added.

Thousands took to the streets in Greece on Thursday to protest the European Union’s and the Greek government’s migration policies, which according to demonstrators have turned the bloc into a “fortress” and the Mediterranean into “a sea of corpses”. EFE

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