CAIRO: Nine Egyptians suspected of being people smugglers connected with the deadly sinking of an overloaded migrant boat off Greece have been charged with human trafficking and remanded, a Greek legal source said on Tuesday. The men denied the charges during a hearing before a magistrate in Kalamata that lasted more than 10 hours on Tuesday, the legal source added. Officials say the migrants aboard the boat which capsized in the Ionian Sea last week had departed from Libya towards Italy. A Greek navy frigate, a patrol boat and four other vessels on Tuesday searched the waters off the Peloponnese peninsula where the migrants disappeared. But the hopes of finding any survivors are scant a week on from the disaster.

Source: Libya Today June 21, 2023 06:07 UTC