While most ferries can accommodate up to 1,500 people, this one can carry as many as 2,500. The vast majority are fleeing war, conflict or persecution in countries including Syria, Afghanistan and Eritrea.
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“We cannot stand idly by and watch people risk their lives trying to get to us”.
Some experts note that using either term – migrant or refugee – in a blanket manner doesn’t capture the situation of people who don’t fit neatly into either category or who belong in both. At least one of the dead wore a life vest.
“About 100 people are still missing”, said Ebrahim Al Attoushi, a Red Crescent official, and 198 had been rescued.
“You can imagine what they are going through”.
“We will have another go at quotas”.
A further 800 arrived at the northern port of Kavala in the northeast of the country, with plans to transport the refugees to the Macedonian border over the course of the day.
A gruesome discovery this week of 71 bodies decomposing in a tractor-trailer truck parked near the Austrian border shone a new light on the massive humanitarian crisis facing Europe.
Hungarian police said 10 Syrian migrants were injured when a van driven by a Romanian suspected of human trafficking overturned en route for Budapest. Almost 20 other people were questioned as witnesses and houses connected to the case were also searched.
Hans Peter Doskozil, chief of police in eastern Burgenland province, said the migrants likely suffocated. Workers in gloves and masks lifted body bags into coffins neatly lined up on the warehouse ramp.
“We honestly believe if correct measures are taken, this is something that Europe can handle”, she said. “They do not care about the well-being of the refugees, they care about profit”.
On Friday, Hungarian police said they arrested a Romanian man who flipped a van carrying 18 refugees.
Poseidon disembarked 471 migrants who were among the more than 3,000 rescued by several ships on Wednesday. They ended up smashing the deck to reach the 52 corpses inside.
The migrants were from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Syria, Morocco and Bangladesh, a security official said.
Tens of thousands of migrants are estimated to have left Greece and crossed the Balkan states, passing through Macedonia and Serbia, in order to re-enter the European Union in Hungary.
Poland recently accepted 2,000 refugees to ease pressure on Italy and Greece, but resists calls for more even distribution of refugees from the Middle East, with new president Andrzej Duda also citing the need to prepare for a possible influx from Ukraine. The UN and the French government have called for more “hotspots” to process asylum applications of individuals fleeing from war, as opposed to economic migrants. Police said it could take until today to determine the exact number of victims, which could be as many as 50. Most EU countries are in the Schengen zone, which has made it much easier to cross borders without having to show a passport or other papers.
Italy’s Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni warned over the weekend that the growing migrant crisis threatens to tear out the EU’s “soul”, but some analysts warned it might already be happening. But critics point out such barriers tend to only redirect migrants elsewhere – often to more risky routes.
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About 300 of those waiting had arrived the previous day and spent the chilly night in the open, lighting small fires to keep warm. Aid organizations including Doctors Without Borders were providing medical help, shelter, food and water.
