Searches continued throughout the night to locate and rescue missing persons in the maritime area of ​​the shipwreck off Pylos.

Just before 23:00 last night, an open sea vessel of the Coast Guard sailed into the port of Kalamata, carrying bodies.

According to the official figures so far, the dead are 79 and the rescued 104, of which 30 have been transferred to the Kalamata hospital.

According to the Coast Guard, 6 parasailing vessels and a Coast Guard lifeguard are operating in the area.

The Special Plan for the Management of Human Losses and the Disaster Victim Identification Team have been activated, at the request of the Coast Guard/Hellenic Coast Guard and by the decision of the general secretary of Civil Protection Vassilis Papageorgiou and the head of the Hellenic Police Lt. Gen. Lazaros Mavropoulos.

The Disaster Victim Identification Team will collect DNA samples from the dead and survivors for identification.

Echelons of the police, the Coast Guard, the Fire Brigade, the army, the municipality of Kalamata and the Region are in the port of Kalamata to assist in the operations.

In an area in front of the port, tents have been set up since yesterday by organizations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Greek Red Cross, and the International Organization for Migration.

Rescued people have been transferred to a specially designed area in the warehouses of the city’s port, where they are provided with food and blankets.

They will probably be transferred to a hosting structure today.

As stated by the cardiologist, Director of the Cardiology Clinic of the Kalamata Hospital and secretary of the hospital doctors of Messinia Manolis Makaris, 30 refugees and immigrants are being treated at the Kalamata hospital so far and their condition is relatively good.

Distress messages

“Their problems are under control. Some have pneumonia, some others have total paralysis, some others have various problems because they got aspiration pneumonia. Their problems are to be expected, with what people have drawn. Mainly their psychological problem is the big problem and what they are anxiously asking is to communicate with their relatives”, Mr. Makaris pointed out.

He added that some of the rescued patients reported that there were around 750 people on board, including around 50-100 children in the holds.

“I asked how many were on that boat, some said about 750. There were ambiguous opinions about how many children were on board, others said 50, others about 100, they obviously did not know what was happening in the holds”, said Mr. Makaris.

He described shocking messages he receives on his cell phone from relatives who are searching on board the fishing boat.

Some send him pictures and provide information asking him if he has seen the relative they are looking for. At the same time, he receives constant calls from unknown numbers calling from countries such as Syria and Pakistan, from people who are worried about the fate of their own.

“They have sent me photos” asking “if we have seen them” and “the problem of notifying the relatives needs to be solved,” he insisted.

The rescued are men, aged 16-40. They mainly experienced hypothermia, fainting episodes, hypoglycemic episodes and pneumonia.

“People were shocked, we were looking at their medical issue, we were trying to communicate through a mobile app because they didn’t speak any other language than Arabic, so we were asking them to give us some information through the app if they are in pain, if they are short of breath, how they feel, if they have colds . Some had hypothermia, but overall their condition is stable and controlled,” he said, adding that interpreters who know Arabic are urgently needed to be sent to communicate with people.

“It is a very unpleasant event, it is our obligation to deal with the issue with great seriousness, they are our fellow human beings,” the Deputy Mayor of Pronoia Kalamata, Giorgos Favas, stressed from his side to APE-MPE.

After the immigrants arrived at the port of Kalamata, the municipal services in collaboration with the Region, EKAV, the Kalamata Hospital and other agencies, the Port Authority, the police, the Fire Department cooperated perfectly to be able to transport them in dignified and safe conditions. to provide them with as many things as possible, feeding, water and everything else they needed in order to treat hypothermia and hypoglycemia.

“From there on, the Civil Protection services and the welfare services are on hand, all day long so that whatever you ask us to provide immediately in order to facilitate their side as much as possible. The information we have at the moment is that these people will be transferred to the mainland, to some temporary accommodation structure, possibly in Athens, as soon as the pre-investigation procedures are completed”, Mr. Favas pointed out to APE-MPE.

He added that the rescued were dehydrated, several suffered fainting and hypoglycemic episodes, while most likely those who managed to be rescued were on deck.

Shocked and confused are most of the rescued migrants, found a volunteer rescuer of the Greek Red Cross.

“Most of these people are confused, they’re shocked, they’ve lost loved ones, they’ve spent several days in the water, struggling to travel. As the Red Cross, we didn’t want to overcharge them. What we wanted is to take care of them physically and mentally so that we relieve them as much as possible so that these people can also feel as good as possible in the pain they are living,” he said.

“The ship had enough people, the information has already been given to the Coast Guard and the police, unfortunately there were many people stranded. The information we have is that there were many people inside the boat, mainly women and children”, noted Dimitris, volunteer Samaritan – rescuer of the Hellenic Red Cross.

“Although I have been a volunteer since 2003 and we have experienced this situation many times, we have also experienced the whole refugee situation, every time we see a fellow human being suffering, we suffer with him,” he added.