The incident comes months after the European Union’s border agency, Frontex, warned that growing numbers of migrants bound for Europe were turning to Egypt as a departure point for the unsafe sea journey.
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According to CNN, four crew members including the owner of the vessel were arrested Thursday, possibly on charges of human trafficking and involuntary manslaughter.
Authorities also issue arrest warrants for five more people wanted in connection with the tragedy, according to the officials.
Survivors said up to 450 refugees had been aboard the fishing boat when it sank about 12 kilometers off the coast of the Egyptian Mediterranean port city Rosetta.
Rescue workers carry the body of a victim on a stretcher after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Egypt’s coast, in Al-Beheira, Egypt, September 22, 2016.
Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira province, where Rosetta is located, told The Associated Press that authorities did not have a precise number for those who were on board the vessel, but that 250-400 seemed likely. Survivors said most of those who died were women and children. Salem is a faculty of commerce graduate who recently concluded his mandatory military service and trd to apply for many jobs to no avail.
The spokesperson of the Sudanese Foreign Ministry Gharib Allah Khidir, told reporters on Thursday that the 29 Sudanese were rescued from the capsized boat at12 km from the coast of Alexandria. The boat flipped one hour after it took off from the shore.
The military said in a statement that 163 passengers had been rescued so far, adding that they had stopped another boat elsewhere on the Mediterranean coast carrying 294 migrants. “The boat is meant to hold 200, and they put 400 in it”.
They were among 42 people confirmed dead in the disaster which unfolded on Wednesday. “Those are dead, for sure”. “The captain couldn’t move the boat; it kept swaying until it fell on its side”, Darwish said, as he lay in a blue gown on a bed at the public hospital in the coastal village of Burg Rashed.
Smugglers in the region reportedly charge refugees about 35,000 pounds, almost $4,000, each for the perilous journey to Europe. He said locals paid up to $4,000 to risk their lives in hope of a new start in Europe.
“Usually it works that way: The migrants reach them with dinghies, with rubber boats”, he said.
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Mohamed, a 28-year-old Egyptian welder, managed to stay afloat until a rescue boat found him, but lost his wife and son during the incident.
