Greek coast guard defends actions as more than 500 migrants heading for Europe feared dead in wreck

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and NICHOLAS PAPHITIS
Associated Press give
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The Greek coast guard on Friday defended its response to the sinking of a ship that went down off the country’s south coast and left as many as 500 migrants presumed drowned. Criticism mounted over Europe’s yearslong failure to to prevent such tragedies. 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 in what the U.N. migration agency said could be the second deadliest shipwreck recorded. A vessel capsized off the coast of Libya en route to Italy in April 2015 and killed an estimated 1,100 migrants.