The world is looking at Greece’s deadly migration policies. 

Dear reader,

This is our weekly round-up from Greece.

One of the worst disasters in the Mediterranean in recent years happened off the Greek shore this week. What 750 people hoped to be their voyage to safety and a better life ended up being a death voyage.

Loads of contradictory information have been published. Yet, it all points to one conclusion: the EU’s migration policy is proving more lethal by the day.

Can you bear to envisage how it is to have no option but to travel with your baby in the hold of a ship so overloaded that people seem to be hanging like grapes - and then to end up sinking?

WTF has happened to Europe?

What we know so far

The fishing boat “Andriana” appears to have sailed empty from Egypt and stopped at the Libyan port of Tobruk (which lies south of the Greek island of Crete), where it picked up migrants destined for Italy, Greek media report.

Based on interviews with survivors, the International Organization for Migration estimated that the vessel was carrying 700 to 750 people, including at least 40 children. Save the Children put that number higher, at about 100 children.

Reports suggested (Opens in a new window) that the boat sank about 80km (47 nautical miles) from the Greek southern coastal town of Pylos. It was early Wednesday morning, 14 June 2023. At least 78 people have died, 104 have been saved, and the rest are missing. 

Images showed the decks packed with people, but accounts of many women and children in the hold of the ship have come from medics who treated the mostly male survivors, the BBC reported (Opens in a new window).