Migrants from the ship that sank off Greece paid between 4,000 and 6,000 euros for the trip

MADRID, 16 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The migrants and refugees who were traveling in the fishing boat that sunk on Wednesday off the coast of Greece paid between 4,000 and 6,000 euros to embark on this dangerous journey, which has so far resulted in an official balance of 78 deaths but has also left Hundreds missing.

This is how the survivors themselves have told it - the emergency services have recovered just over a hundred people alive -, from whose testimonies the details of a boat in which between 500 and 700 people were traveling, have been revealed. including some of the alleged traffickers.

On Thursday, Greek authorities placed nine men of Egyptian origin under arrest as suspected perpetrators. The captain of the fishing boat would instead appear on the list of fatalities, which could also include about a hundred children, reports the public television channel ERT.

Regarding the trip, the testimonies collected in the last few hours clarify that the ship did not initially leave Libya, but rather sailed from Egypt. She did stop in Libya, in the port of Tobruk, as a step prior to her final journey to southern Europe, which she initially contemplated reaching Italy.

The Coast Guard keeps the search operation open in the area of ​​the shipwreck, some 50 nautical miles from the Peloponnese peninsula, although with little hope of finding people alive. Meanwhile, he has defended his work in the hours before the shipwreck, after initially detecting the boat.

Investigations suggest that the ship capsized after a sudden change in weight. A coast guard spokesman, Nikos Alexiou, explained to ERT that the passengers moved for unknown reasons to the side of the fishing boat, causing it to become unstable and eventually capsize.