Migrant ship refuses help despite call for aid

A cargo ship believed to be carrying hundreds of migrants has turned towards Italy, brushing off Greek authorities responding to a distress call from one of its passengers.

A passenger on board the Moldovan-flagged Blue Sky M called emergency services in Greece earlier yesterday when it was sailing off the coast of the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea.

Greek authorities scrambled a navy frigate and a helicopter to check the ship and the nature of the emergency.

The ship was believed to be carrying about 400 to 600 migrants.

The passenger’s phonecall said the ship was about 16km off Corfu bearing a large number of migrants, said Admiral Nikolaos Patrinos, head of the coastguard’s security operations.

The passenger said: “We are without water, food, and blankets.”

A coastguard official said the Greek frigate contacted the cargo ship’s captain, who said the ship was not in any danger and was not requesting assistance. The ship then headed towards Italy.

Tens of thousands of migrants and refugees, most fleeing conflict or poverty in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, attempt to reach the European Union each year, with many making the perilous crossing by sea to Italy or Greece.

On Sunday, Greek passenger ferry Norman Atlantic caught fire in the same area of the Mediterranean, leading to a massive two-day rescue operation by Italian and Greek coastguard and military officials.

The Greek frigate had been in the area assisting in the Norman Atlantic rescue operation.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in Italy say they fear more bodies will be found aboard the Norman Atlantic, adrift for a third day after a fire broke out on a car deck, with 10 people killed in the ensuing chaos.

Bari prosecutor Giuseppe Volpe has ordered the ferry, currently drifting off the Albanian coastline, to be towed to the southern Italian port of Brindisi as part of a criminal investigation.

Volpe says it is likely that other bodies will be found in the cargo areas, given “incontrovertible” evidence that illegal migrants were on board.

Salvage companies were working to secure tow lines to begin moving the ferry, but were hampered by high winds and seas.

Two Albanian tugboat crew members died yesterday, apparently struck by a tow line that snapped.