“The fishing boat was 25-30 metres long. Its deck was full of people, and we assume the interior was just as full,” coastguard spokesman Nikolaos Alexiou told ERT.
Government spokesman Ilias Siakantaris on Wednesday said there were unconfirmed reports that up to 750 people had been on the boat.
He told ERT that a common tactic used by smugglers was to “lock people up to maintain control”.
QUESTIONS OVER RESCUE
The coastguard said a surveillance plane with Europe’s Frontex agency had spotted the boat on Tuesday afternoon, but that the passengers had “refused any help”.
The boat’s engine gave up shortly before 2300 GMT on Tuesday and the vessel later capsized, Siakantaris said, sinking in around 10 to 15 minutes.
Alexiou, the coastguard spokesman, suggested that the boat might have capsized earlier if the coastguard had attempted to intervene.
“You cannot divert a boat with so many people on board by force unless there is cooperation,” he said.
It was “fortunate” that rescue ships were nearby or more lives would have been lost, he added.
But leftist former prime minister Alexis Tsipras, who spoke to survivors at the port, said they had “called for help”.
“What sort of protocol does not call for the rescue … of an overloaded boat about to sink?” he asked.
The head of Frontex, Hans Leijtens, arrived in Greece on Thursday “to better understand what happened since Frontext played a part”.
“I am also here to show my solidarity and help to Greek colleagues, who did everything possible to save lives,” he said.
Authorities said the migrants had departed from Libya and were heading for Italy.
The survivors, mainly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan, are being housed in a port warehouse, where will be interviewed by Greek officials, who are looking for possible smugglers among them.
Acting migration minister Daniel Esdras told ERT that the survivors would be taken to Malakasa migrant camp near Athens by Friday.
Greece would examine their asylum claims, but those not entitled to protection would be sent home, he said.
Along with Italy and Spain, Greece has been one of the main landing points for tens of thousands of people seeking to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East.
The worst migrant tragedy in Greece was in June 2016, when at least 320 people were listed as dead or missing in a sinking near Crete, according to AFP records going back to 1993.
The Mediterranean’s worst disaster overall was in April 2015, when between 800 and 900 migrants died on a trawler that sank within sight of a Portuguese rescue freighter.
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