Greek coast guard defends actions as up to 500 migrants feared dead in shipwreck

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece’s coast guard is defending its actions in responding to a ship carrying hundreds of migrants that ended up sinking off the country’s south coast. Criticism mounted on Friday over the European Union’s years-long failure to hammer out a comprehensive migration and asylum policy. Patrol boats and a helicopter spent a third day scouring the area of the Mediterranean Sea where the packed fishing vessel capsized and sank early Wednesday. The International Organization for Migration said as many as 500 passengers may have gone down with the trawler, which was traveling from Libya to Italy. That would make it the second-deadliest shipwreck recorded by the U.N. migration agency.