Mutwali Mohamed watched helplessly as his wife and son slipped under the waves after the crowded migrant boat they boarded capsized off Egypt’s coast on its voyage to Italy.
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The men were detained on possible charges of “human trafficking and involuntary manslaughter”.
Authorities also issued arrest warrants for five more people wanted in connection with Wednesday’s shipwreck, according to officials.
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.
Survivors from a boat that capsized off Egypt’s north coast are held in a police station in Rashid.
Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira province, where Rosetta is located, told the Associated Press news agency that authorities did not have a precise number for those who were on board the vessel, but 250-400 seemed likely.
About 52 bodies have been recovered so far, but security officials said nearly 600 people may have been squeezed aboard the wooden vessel, suggesting hundreds more may have perished in what is just the latest disaster for migrants desperate to reach Europe.
Authorities have arrested four suspected human traffickers over the tragedy, the latest in what the United Nations refugee agency expects to be the deadliest year on record for the Mediterranean. Egyptian private newspaper al-Masry al-Youm reported on its website that the vessel had 300 on board, while Al Ahram said 400.
Numerous survivors in the latest incident have been detained by police. He said he was among around 100 people in a hold used to store fish when the vessel capsized.
He said migrants go out to sea in small groups and gather at bigger boats, which begin the journey to Europe when traffickers believe they have gathered enough passengers. “The boat had more people than it could take”. A prosecution official said they would be treated like “victims and not perpetrators” and would be released.
A municipal official in Rosetta said the dead included one child, 10 women and 31 young men. “It’s a wooden boat”, he said.
The UN refugee agency UNHCR recently said 2016 is set to be the deadliest year on record for migrants and refugees trying to reach Europe.
European Union border agency Frontex says more than 12,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Egypt between January and September, compared with 7,000 over the same period in 2015.
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Reports from Egypt say 52 bodies have been recovered from the Mediterranean but hundreds are still missing.
