Athens, Greece — Desperate hands clung to Ali Elwan’s arms, legs and neck, and screams filled his ears as he spit out salt water and struggled for three hours to stay afloat in the night, dozens of kilometers from land.
Although he was a poor swimmer, he survived (one of 104 survivors of the shipwreck of an old, dilapidated metal fishing boat that was illegally transporting up to 750 migrants from North Africa to Europe.
“I was very, very lucky,” the 30-year-old Egyptian told The Associated Press in Athens, Greece, where he works odd jobs while waiting to hear the outcome of his asylum application. “I have two babies. Maybe I will stay in this life for them.”
Thousands of people have died in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea in recent years as migrants from the Middle East, Asia and Africa seek a better life in the prosperous European Union.
But the sinking of the Adriana a year ago Friday in international waters 75 kilometers (45 miles) off Pylos, southern Greece, was one of the worst. Only 82 bodies were recovered, so hundreds of families still lack even the stark certainty that their relatives are dead.
Elwan, a cook whose wife and children are in Cairo, says he still receives phone calls from Egypt from mothers, siblings and wives of the missing.
“We (left) home to get the best life for the family and until now (their families) don’t know anything about them,” he said.
And after a year, there are only confusing answers about why so many lives were lost, what caused the shipwreck and who can be held responsible.
Migrant charities and human rights groups have sharply criticized Greece’s handling of the sinking.
The Greek coast guard, the Migration Ministry and other officials did not respond to requests for comment before the anniversary.
Authorities had a coast guard vessel at the scene and merchant ships nearby during the trawler’s final hours. They blame smugglers who packed hundreds of people into an unseaworthy boat – most in an airless hold designed to store fish catch – for a nightmarish journey from Libya to Italy.
They also say the Adriana capsized when its passengers (some of whom wanted to continue on to Italy after five harrowing days at sea, others to seek safety in Greece) suddenly stepped aside, causing it to lurch and spin. And they insist that offers to get the migrants off the ship were rejected by people intending to reach Italy.
Elwan, who says he was on deck with a clear view of what happened, and other survivors say the lurch occurred after a failed attempt by the coast guard to tow the fishing boat. She claimed the coast guard hurriedly cut the tow cable when it became clear that the Adriana would sink and take her boat with it.
“If you find the ship (at the bottom of the sea), you will find this rope” still tied to it, he said.
But logistics make such a feat nearly impossible, Greek authorities say, as the ship is about 5 kilometers (more than 3 miles) deep, at one of the deepest points in the Mediterranean.
The coast guard has denied any attempted towing and allegations that its vessel attempted to move the fishing vessel into neighboring Italy’s area of responsibility.
A naval tribunal began an investigation last June, but has not released information about its progress or conclusions. Furthermore, in November the Greek State Ombudsman initiated an independent probe on the authorities’ handling of the tragedy, regretting the coast guard’s “express refusal” to initiate a disciplinary investigation.
Last month, a Greek court dropped the charges against nine Egyptians accused of crewing the Adriana and causing the shipwreck. Without examining evidence for or against, he determined that Greece lacked jurisdiction since the shipwreck occurred in international waters.
Effie Doussi, one of the Egyptians’ defense lawyers, argued that the ruling was “politically expedient” for the Greek authorities.
“It saved the Greek state from being exposed over how the coast guard acted, given its responsibility in the rescue,” he said.
Doussi said a full hearing would have included testimony from survivors and other witnesses, and would have allowed defense attorneys to seek additional evidence from the coast guard, such as possible cell phone data.
Zeeshan Sarwar, a 28-year-old Pakistani survivor, said he is still waiting for justice, “but apparently there is nothing.”
“I may look good right now, but I’m broken inside. “We are not getting justice,” he told the AP. “We are not getting any information about the coast guard people…whether the court has found them guilty or not.”
Elwan, the Egyptian, said he can still only sleep three or four hours a night.
“I remember every second that happened to me,” he said. “I can’t forget anything because I lost friends on this ship.”
The journey preceding the shipwreck was also horrendous.
Survivors said the Pakistanis were confined to the hold and beaten by the crew if they tried to move. But Arabic-speaking Egyptians and Syrians enjoyed the relative luxury of the deck. For many, that made the difference between life and death when the boat capsized.
“Our condition was very bad on the first day because it was the first time in our life that we were traveling by sea,” Sarwar said.
“If a person…tried to vomit, they used to say you have to do it right here, in your lap, you can’t go (outside),” he said. “On the fifth day the people fainted from hunger and thirst. “A man died.”
Elwan said he left for Europe secretly and told his wife he would be gone for months, working at an Egyptian resort on the Red Sea.
He is upset that he has not yet been granted asylum, unlike many Syrian survivors who he said have moved to Western Europe.
“Only people from Egypt can’t get documents,” he said. “I have been working for 10 months to send money for my family… If someone says come and move the garbage, I will go and move this garbage, no problem for me.”
If he gets residency documents, Elwan wants to work in Greece and bring his family.
Otherwise, “I will go to Italy, maybe Germany. I don’t know.”
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AP writer Lefteris Pitarakis contributed to this report.
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