Emotional reunion of brothers as at least 300 people were killed in the migrant shipwreck

It was a ray of hope in the midst of a massive human tragedy.

With tears streaming down a face covered in cuts and bruises, a Syrian teen survived the shipwreck on Wednesday that claimed the lives of hundreds of people. Off the coast of Greece, he is reunited with his older brother, Fadi.

Fadi had traveled from the Netherlands to help 18-year-old Mehmet, one of 104 people rescued from the Aegean Sea after the boat he was in sank. Hugging through metal barriers erected by the Greek police around a warehouse in Kalamata where the survivors were sleeping, Fadi kissed the little brother’s head.

Their story was one of the few good ones.

Pakistan Senate Speaker Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani said more than 300 Pakistanis were killed in a statement Sunday. Greek authorities have yet to confirm the toll and whether it includes 78 recovered bodies.

The migrant shipwreck – one of the worst migrant shipwrecks – has sparked arrests, violent protests and questions about the authorities’ failure to act or find a long-term solution to the case.

The victims drowned when the fishing boat, which was between 65 and 100 feet long, capsized and sank early Wednesday morning. in some of the deepest waters of the Mediterranean.

Greek authorities have been criticized for not acting to rescue the migrants, even though a coast guard vessel escorted the fishing trawler for hours and watched it sink in minutes.

Under international maritime law, authorities are not only obligated to conduct immediate rescues, but are also required to do so without any express request for assistance.

Hundreds were on board the boat, eyewitnesses and the United Nations said, revealing the true scale of the disaster It fueled mounting anger in Greece and abroad.

The tragedy prompted the South Asian country to declare a national day of mourning with Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif vowing to take action against human traffickers, who often smuggled desperate migrants across the Mediterranean.

Outside a shelter in Kalamata on Sunday, relatives clutched photos of loved ones to their mobile phones as they clung to their tattered hopes of survival.

In Jordan, Ayman Al-Shaabani, 50, told NBC News by phone Sunday that he was praying for news of his younger brother Khalil, 32, who he said was on the boat.

“My brother told me that once he hung up the phone, that meant they were at sea on their way to Italy,” he said. “But his phone is still off until now, the boat never made it to Italy and we never heard my brother’s voice again.”

Al-Shaabani said if he had known it was their last call, he would have “told him how much I love him and how much I will miss him.”

He said Khalil left his wife and four children in Syria, where he struggled to find work, in search of a better life in Europe.

He said they got better news from his cousin, Muath al-Shaabani, who was also on the ship and sent them an audio message from a Greek hospital. Muadh started crying when he asked them about Khalil, who he feared would die.

Anwar Bakri, Secretary General of the Syrian Association in Greece, said speaking alongside families waiting in the fortified warehouse in Kalamata. Reuters on Saturday received “hundreds of calls” from people in Germany, Turkey and other countries, who feared their Syrian relatives might be on the sinking boat.

“I have many photos, at least 15 photos so far, of missing people, young children, 16 years old, 20 years old, 25 years old, their parents are looking for them,” al-Bakry told Reuters.

It is now feared they died when their fishing boat capsized and sank early Wednesday.

But the Greek coast guard said in a statement that the boat had rejected several offers of help from its ships and merchant vessels in the area, adding that the ship’s captain “wanted to continue on the route to Italy”.

Italy is often a favored landing point for migrants crossing the Mediterranean into Europe, as it allows refugees to avoid the perilous Balkan route to the thriving northern part of the continent, which is heavily patrolled by both border guards and far-right guards.

Greece’s failure to provide aid is part of a larger European anti-immigrant phenomenon, with countries increasingly flouting international agreements and willfully risking the lives of thousands of migrants fleeing poverty and persecution.

This is despite the growing number of people trying to reach Europe via the Mediterranean. Last year, more than 250,000 people set sail from Turkey and the northern coast of Africa to seek asylum or emigrate to Europe, the most since 2017. According to the International Organization for Migrationan agency of the United Nations.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has previously taken a tough line on refugees, vowing to lengthen the border fence across the entire length of Greece’s 120-mile border with Turkey. Meanwhile, in Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who leads the far-right Brotherhood of Italy party, has gained popularity with promises to curb immigration.

The United Nations has recorded more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014, making it the most dangerous migrant crossing in the world.

The deadliest incident on record involved a ship that capsized off the coast of Libya in 2015, claiming the lives of an estimated 800 migrants.