The harrowing accounts of two shipwreck survivors

Kathimerini.gr has published excerpts from the harrowing depositions of two of the survivors of the fishing trawler that sunk off southwestern Greece early Wednesday.

Both estimate that there were 700 passengers on the ship. Authorities have rescued 104 and 78 have been recovered, all on Wednesday. Subsequent searches in the area, near the deepest part of the Mediterranean, have turned up nothing

The two survivors describe in detail the conditions that prevailed on the trawler before it sank.

Hassan, 23, lived with his family on the outskirts of Damascus in Syria and had already worked in Lebanon for three years. Then, wanting to help his family financially, he decided to look for a way to go to Europe - specifically to Germany.

Doing his own research, he found, he testified, a man who was able to arrange illegal travel to Europe through Libya. He...