The International Organisation for Migration, the UN’s migration agency, said initial reports suggested up to 400 people were on board.Īlarm Phone, an activist network that provides support for migrants trying to cross the med, said it received a distress call from a boat in the same area saying there were 750 people on board. The £138m yacht drew headlines in 2018 when an Australian Instagram model and crew member, Sinead McNamara, was found dead from hanging in ropes off the rear of the vessel. Later that evening a coast guard patrol boat reached the vessel and “confirmed the presence of a large number of migrants on the deck.” “But they refused any assistance and said they wanted to continue to Italy.”Īfter the boat sank, scores of migrants were pulled out of the sea by the 306-ft Mayan Queen IV yacht owned by the late Mexican billionaire Alberto Bailleres.

The passengers turned down help from a second merchant ship that approached it to offer further supplies later that afternoon. “In the afternoon a merchant vessel approached the ship and provided it with food and supplies, while the (passengers) refused any further assistance,” it said. The Italian coast guard first alerted Greek authorities and Frontex, the European Union border protection agency, on Tuesday.įrontex aircraft and two merchant ships spotted the boat heading north at high speed later that day, the Greek coast guard said in a statement. It is believed to have set sail from the Tobruk area of eastern Libya earlier this week. The vessel, which has not been named, capsized early on Wednesday morning while being escorted by a Greek coast guard vessel, authorities said. “We will never find out how many died”, she said. Greek president Katerina Sakellaropoulou visited Kalamata to support the rescue effort.

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