Officials said the four were members of the vessel’s crew and were remanded in police custody for four days pending further investigation. They face charges of human trafficking and manslaughter.
Authorities also issued arrest warrants for five more people wanted in connection with the tragedy, according to the officials.
The Egyptian military said the boat was 12 nautical miles off the coast near the town of Rosetta when it capsized Wednesday.
Mohammed Sultan, the governor of Beheira province, where Rosetta is located, told The Associated Press that authorities did not have a precise number for those who were on board the vessel, but 250-400 seemed likely. He said 157 people were rescued.
An initial breakdown of the nationalities of the migrants showed that they included 111 Egyptians, mostly teenagers and men in their 20s, said Sultan. There were also 25 Sudanese, while the rest were sub-Saharan Africans and Syrians. The search for bodies and survivors has been expanded around the spot where the vessel capsized, he added.
Thousands of illegal migrants have made the dangerous sea voyage across the Mediterranean in recent years, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The number of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from Egypt to Europe has increased significantly in the past year, EU border agency Frontex recently said. More than 12,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Egypt between January and September, compared to 7,000 in the same period last year, it said. Experts say smugglers in Egypt mostly use old fishing vessels, packed far beyond capacity both below and above deck.
Many of the survivors in the latest incident have been detained by police. Some of those rescued who suffered injuries were taken to hospitals, where they lie handcuffed to hospital beds under police guard.
One survivor, Ahmed Darwish, blamed traffickers for the tragedy, saying overcrowding caused the boat to capsize, and accused authorities of not reacting quickly enough.
“What happened was a wrong, it was wrong on our part first of all (to attempt the crossing), but it was also wrong on the part of the people (traffickers) who don’t have a bit of mercy in their hearts,” he told AP. “The boat is meant to hold 200, and they put 400 in it. And this is what caused the catastrophe.”
Darwish said he believed many of those who died were women and children who could not swim. “Those … that knew how to swim moved away (from the boat), leaving behind women and small children,” he said, describing what happened after the boat capsized.
Hassan Suleiman, a relative of one of those on board, said authorities were slow to rescue the migrants and that fishing boats were the first at the scene, plucking bodies from the water and rescuing survivors. He also claimed that traffickers in the area were known to police by name and that some policemen were paid by them to look the other way.
“This is shameful. This is shameful for our children and our young people that go to them.”
The head of the local council, Ali Abdel-Sattar, said the loss of life would have been much heavier had a fishing vessel not been close by when the boat capsized. He identified the skipper of the fishing boat as Mohammed Abu Hamid.
“If this man wasn’t there, if this man wasn’t sent by God, the entire group of migrants would have been dead by now,” said Abdel-Sattar.
He said the coast guard did not start its rescue operations until 11 a.m. on Wednesday, more than five hours after the boat capsized.
He said migrants go out to sea in small groups and gather at bigger boats, which begin the journey to Europe when traffickers believe they have gathered enough passengers. He said on bigger boats, the space below deck at the front of the vessel is often packed tight with people. “Those are dead, for sure.”
He said smugglers were charging migrants around 35,000 pounds (nearly $4,000) each for the perilous journey to Europe. “They paid money to go and die,” he said.
Michael reported from Cairo.
Article Appeared @http://time.com/4504054/4-arrested-migrant-boat-egypt/