The New York TimesThe New York Times

Hundreds dead, nine arrested, and many questions in migrant wreck

By Jason Horowitz and Niki Kitsantonis

17 Jun 2023 · 6 min read

informed Summary

  1. Greek authorities have recovered 78 bodies from the sea and are looking for still more. But some of the 104 survivors say there were hundreds more people aboard, including women and children below deck.

KALAMATA, Greece — At the end of a long stretch of sandy beach, a weathered warehouse in the Greek port of Kalamata held the survivors of one of the worst shipwrecks in Europe in a decade.

Inside, dazed men from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, all with numbered badges around their necks, languished on tightly packed corridors of thin mattresses. Outside, relatives who had flown in from around Europe pressed authorities for information. They then found a crack on the side of the building between an aluminum shutter and a concrete wall, peered through and consoled the loved ones they could see and inquired about the fates of all those they could not.

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