Court detains nine smuggling suspects in Greece migrant ship tragedy, death toll climbs to 82

Nine Egyptian men suspected of belonging to a smuggling ring that crewed the capsized ship off Greece were charged with human trafficking and remanded in pretrial custody Tuesday.

The suspects had survived the sinking but were soon arrested from the port of Kalamata last week. A court in the city ordered their detention after questioning them for over 10 hours.

The arrests were a result of two days of interviews with the survivors, cross-referencing the information and honing down the possibilities of who among the survivors might have been part of the trafficking ring that profited from this enterprise.

The men detained are between 20 and 40 years old and if convicted of manslaughter and forming a criminal organisation charges, face a sentence of up to life imprisonment.

Death count up

The death toll from the sinking of the fishing ship climbed to 82 on Tuesday, authorities informed. The boat with over 750 people onboard, including 100 children was bound for Italy hwn it sank.

The testimonies have reportedly revealed that the boat's engine failed days before it sank.

“We started the journey at dawn on Friday. Around 700 of us were on board,” a migrant told the coastguard as per The Guardian.

“We were travelling for three days and then the engine failed.”

Survivors say the boat was practically packed in every corner and had no lifeboats or any safety measures in place.

Going by the assessment of one of the migrants on the boat, everyone paid at least $4,000 to $5,000 to undertake the voyage, meaning, the entire ship and its human cargo was worth in excess of $3.5 million.

Pakistani migrants discriminated

Even then, the Egyptian smugglers forced the Pakistani migrants to go below deck while other nationalities stayed on the upper deck wherethey stood a greater chance of surviving in the event the boat sank, which it did.

Pakistani media is reporting that at least 298 Pakistanis died in the tragedy out of which 135 were from the Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).

The authorities fear that by the time the rescue operation concludes, the death toll could run into hundreds.

"We are witnessing one of the biggest tragedies in the Mediterranean and the numbers announced by the authorities are devastating," the UN International Organization for Migration said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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