[Julien Warnand, Pool via AP, File]
Survivors of a migrant shipwreck off Pylos, southern Greece, in June, in which hundreds died, filed a lawsuit against the Greek authorities on Thursday, accusing them of violating their duty to protect the lives of the people on board the vessel.
The overcrowded fishing trawler said to be carrying 400-750 people from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt when it sank in international waters off Greece on its way to Italy from Libya.
The Greek coast guard had been shadowing the vessel along a section of its journey.
Only 104 people were pulled from the sea alive — all men and boys — while 82 bodies, only one of them a woman, were recovered.
The rest, including women and children, sank in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean. With depths of around 4,000 meters in that area, any recovery of the vessel or its victims is all but impossible.
A judicial investigation into the causes of the disaster is under way and could take more than a year to be completed. [AP/Reuters]
