“I saw people die who were with us on this journey. Some of them managed to stay for an hour or so, but they eventually became too tired and let go of their lives, and drowned,” Mohammed Hussein, an Egyptian survivor of the boat told Rudaw's Zinar Shino at a migrant camp in Athens.
Hussein said the capsized ship was overcrowded in a way that no one was even able to "stretch out" their legs.
“I stayed in the water for three hours,” Hussein said, “I managed to survive by swimming and with the help of God”.
The Egyptian survivor added they had stayed in the Libya-Italy waterways for five days before the vessel carrying them eventually drowned. He recalled watching people die before his eyes.
An overloaded migrant fishing boat carrying at least 750 people sank off Greece’s Peloponnese peninsula last Wednesday. The Greek coast guard has rescued around 100 survivors from the sea while 82 people have been confirmed dead. The boat reportedly was traveling from Libya to Italy before capsizing.
"The lower and upper parts of the boat were packed with people. It was so bizarre. We had been stuffed on one another in the boat. We were not even able to stretch out our legs," Hussein said.
Global organizations such as International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) called for “urgent and decisive action” in order to prevent future incidents from occurring.
According to Greek media, nine people have been arrested on suspicion of people trafficking, including several Egyptians.
Due to the unsettling condition in their home countries, migrants opt to take the arduous and dangerous journey through the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. A large number of those fleeing poverty and war cross from Africa and the Middle East via Italy in hopes of a better life on the European continent.
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