They were crossing the road of the port of Kalamata that led to the area where the rescued immigrants and refugees from the shipwreck that happened off Pylos lived several times during the day. They were holding their cellphones and showing pictures of their own people who they knew had been on board the sinking fishing boat but had yet to hear from them. Faces mute and sullen, they approached the fenced entrance, looked through the cracks to see if they could find their relative and kept asking the port authorities with the same anxiety always painted on their faces. Some were bending, bursting out and others remained in the area in order to learn something more. As the hours passed, more and more relatives of the missing arrived at the port of Kalamata, some with little things and others with suitcases in their hands.

On the second night from the day of the shipwreck o Tahir Razar from Pakistan who has been living in Greece for years approaches the entrance of the warehouse at the port of Kalamata and asks the authorities if they have seen his 18-year-old cousin. He shows the photo of his young relative from Pakistan who left his country, went to Libya and boarded the fishing boat. “He wanted to leave Pakistan and go to Italy. He couldn’t stand the situation and the poverty in his country anymore, he told us he can’t stand it anymore, we have to leave here”, he tells the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency, showing us the photo of his cousin. “He paid $5,000 to leave and find a job,” he explains. A day before he was to travel, he contacted his family and told them to “say their prayers for his arrival.” It never arrived though. “I talked to his parents, I tried to reassure them, but we can’t find him anywhere,” he tells APE-MPE, leaving the port, without having any news about his relative.

On the other hand, in the operational center that had been set up, an echelon of the search and restoration of family ties sector of the Hellenic Red Cross was trying to help the rescued to contact someone close to them. “On the evening of Thursday, June 15, we made over 78 phone calls. Those who had been rescued and remembered a relative’s phone number turned to us to talk to their relatives. The calls lasted about 3 minutes for them to contact to say that they are fine and safe,” the head of the search and restoration of family ties of the Hellenic Red Cross points out to the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency. Maria Liandri. They may not have understood the language, however, as he explains, all their feelings were reflected in the face of the rescued immigrants and refugees. “We don’t understand the language, but all the emotions are reflected in the face and the sounds, at the same time that on the other side of the line you can hear a cry of joy, a cry, a voice. You participate. It’s mixed feelings. What is common and we were talking about is that all the faces when they come are sad and when they hang up the phones are bright”, Ms. Liandri describes to APE-MBE, adding that the most difficult part is that someone does not remember the phone or you cannot catch line easily.

“Communication is a right even as people seek and seek theirs. We also have this obligation to cover this right. They tell us who they will call and we also ask relatives to see if we need support. Most invited their brothers and their mothers”, he emphasizes.

Mrs. Liandri remembers the first person who tried to talk to someone of hers. ” The first who sat down to speak seemed to be troubled. He was very quiet and speechless he seemed to have no emotion as soon as he spoke he started to cry. He was a completely different person, it was as if he burst out,” he says and emphasizes that there were several who burst into sobs.

At first, he says, most people feel an anxiety. The same anxiety is felt by those who mediate to talk to their families.

“We have more of a need to find a way to guide people on what to do, especially when it comes to such a big accident with so many dead and missing. What is most difficult is to put things in order and for people to know what to look for and how to look, so we all feel this pressure,” he notes while adding that it needs to be communicated that the red cross is exactly the same all over the world, so in any country someone can turn to the corresponding Red Cross to look for a loved one.