Relatives of Greek shipwreck victims furious as 'millions' spent on Titan search

29 June 2023 , 12:15

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18-year-old man named Mohammad tearfully reunited with his brother after the shipwreck

Hundreds of families who lost their relatives after a ship carrying people capsized in Greece are outraged at the money spent on the Titan search and rescue.

More than 500 people are believed to be dead after a large fishing boat from Libya tipped over off the south coast of Greece on June 14.

A week later, a submarine-like vessel was sent into the Atlantic Ocean to view the famous Titanic shipwreck and the operation failed with five billionaires onboard.

Upon realising the five were missing, a huge search involving multiple countries and private entities was carried out. Nearly a week later, debris and presumed human remains from the vessel, named Titan, were returned to land off Canada.

The boat left Libya and was bound for Italy

Meanwhile, the migrant boat that capsized in the Mediterranean still lies as a shipwreck, despite the fact it likely will have hundreds of bodies in the hold.

Woman who fled dangerous Iran watched 16 people drown in dinghy disaster

“We were shocked to know that millions would be spent on this rescue mission," Anees Majeed, who lost five relatives told the Guardian.

He continued: "They used all resources, and so much news came out from this search. But they did not bother to search for hundreds of Pakistanis and other people who were on the Greek boat.

“This is a double standard … they could have saved many of the people if they wanted, or at least they could have recovered the bodies."

Debris from the Titan sub has been recovered from the ocean floor (AP)

While, Abdul Karim, a 36-year-old shopkeeper based in Kashmir who lost a cousin and uncle on the ship, said he was also "shocked" at the "double standards" of the response to the two tragedies.

He said: "They used all resources, and so much news came out from this search. But they did not bother to search for hundreds of Pakistanis and other people who were on the Greek boat."

While some rescue operations are underway in Greek waters, authorities have been slammed for their slow and corrupt process.

Greek coast guard officials have rebuffed allegations that they deliberately failed to intervene but migrants recall seeing the bright lights of rescue ships not moving.

Rescued people from the shipwreck sit inside a warehouse in Kalamata, Greece (Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Ayad, 24, from Syria, said the Greek coastguard did not send help for at least three hours after the boat capsized.

"They just watched. They could have saved so many more," he told The Sunday Times, in a testimony backed up by four other survivors.

Legal experts cite maritime tracking data which "clearly" shows the vessel in distress and a rescue operation not being launched quickly enough.

60 migrants including newborn dead after boat falls apart off coast of Italy

The US government is thought to have spent close to £1m on the Titan rescue, according to one estimate by The Washington Post.

The five people who died in the Atlantic on Titan (COURTESY OF THE DAWOOD FOUNDATION AND FAMILY)

But the figure also doesn’t count what was spent by the Canadian government and private companies, with one expert telling The New York Times it is in the "millions."

"For all of us, we hope that if any of our loved ones go missing that the media and the public would pay the same attention to all stories," Apryl Alexander, a public health professor at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte who has studied trauma and survivors told Associated Press.

Rachel Hagan