Survivors from a fishing boat that sank off southern Greece in one of Europe’s worst migrant disasters stated that up to 100 children may have been on board.At least 78 people have already been confirmed dead in the disaster but many more could still be missing at sea, with suggestions that up to 750 people were aboard the vessel.
The coastguard has been criticised for not intervening earlier but authorities say their offers of aid were refused.Rescuers are still searching the area where the boat capsized almost 50 nautical miles off the south-west coast, as hopes of finding more survivors dwindle.
The boat had departed empty from Egypt and stopped at the Libyan port of Tobruk where it picked up migrants destined for Italy.Images showed the decks packed with people, but accounts of a large number of women and children in the hold of the ship have come from medics who treated the mostly male survivors. 
A senior doctor at Kalamata General Hospital said as many as 100 children were on the vessel.”[The survivors] told us there were children in the bottom of the ship. Children and women,” said Dr Manolis Makaris, head of cardiology.
He added that two patients had given him estimated figures.”One told me about 100 children, the other about 50, so I don’t know the truth – but it is many,” he added.Dr Makaris said he believed as many as 600 people could have died in the disaster.”The exact number of all the people who were on the boat was 750. This is the exact number that everyone told me about this,” he said.
Families of some Egyptian children who were missing had sent him photographs of their young relatives, he said, in the hope he would recognise them after treating them.”It was a tragedy,” he said. “Everyone in Europe must not accept this situation. We have to do something. Everyone has to do something so it doesn’t happen again.”
Greece is one of the main routes into the European Union for refugees and migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa.Last month the Greek government came under international criticism over video reportedly showed the forceful expulsion of migrants who were set adrift at sea.
