Nine Egyptians have been arrested on suspicion of being people smugglers after the migrant boat disaster off Greece that claimed at least 78 lives, a port source told AFP Thursday.
Among the detainees is the captain of the overloaded and dilapidated vessel, the source said.
The source said the fishing boat left Egypt empty before taking on the migrants at the Libyan port city of Tobruk and heading towards Italy.
Greek news agency ANA reported that the Egyptians were arrested in the Peloponnese port of Kalamata on suspicion of illegal trafficking of human beings. Kalamata is where survivors of the disaster are being cared for.
The International Organization for Migration has said it fears hundreds of more people drowned in one of the worst tragedies in the Mediterranean for a decade.
Tobruk, the city from which the migrants’ boat took sailing towards Italy, was recently the scene of a major security operation conducted by the Libyan National Army (LNA) to stop the smugglers. On June 4, security forces conducted raids in Tobruk and other towns bordering Egypt, and found over 1,000 people in farms and houses waiting to be taken across the Mediterranean. Boats and a harbour used by the smugglers were destroyed.
The operation came a month following a meeting between Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and LNA’s General Commander Khalifa Haftar, on May 4. With economic crisis in Egypt, the war in Sudan, and the famine in Chad and Ethiopia, Italy was seen as searching for reliable ally to tackle the issue of illegal migration by partnering with the LNA.