"A man who survived said that he had lost 16 family members in the shipwreck. In these hours, everyone is searching desperately for information about their loved ones," said Red Cross volunteer Marilena Giftea, who arrived at the Kalamata port the morning of June 15 for the first disembarking of survivors.

While rescue operations continued off the coast, relatives of the missing arrived at the port of Kalamata.

The day after the wreck, Giftea continued providing assistance to the 104 survivors, who spent the night in a warehouse of the port waiting to be transferred to a migrant center in Malakasa, north of Athens.

Tensions rise steadily as hours pass, says psychologist

For hours, a Syrian man stood outside the warehouse housing the survivors. He asked everyone he saw about his brother, who he hadn't heard from since the wreck. He held up photos and stopped humanitarian aid workers transiting through. No one, however, could give him any answers.

Many survivors rested on mattresses in the semi-darkness of the warehouse. Every once in a while someone came out to stretch their legs and get some air, but in an area far from the cameras of journalists.

Some opened sacks with clothing and food brought from aid lorries, wearing shorts and flip-flops received after disembarking.

"There are men looking for their wives and children. Most of them do not even have their cellphones with them and they ask us to help contact their families in their countries of origin," said Ippokratis Stathiou, a psychologist.

Many tried to call the Kalamata hospital in the hope of tracking down their relatives.

"However, the more hours that pass, the higher the tension rises and the pain becomes unbearable," the psychologist said.

About a hundred children had been in the hold of the ship, according to statements given by a passenger to the director of the cardiology clinic of the Kalamata hospital.

An young Egyptian man arrived in Kalamata from Italy in search of his brother.

"They cannot give me any information, but I do not want to believe that my brother died at sea, because he did not know how to swim," he said, nervously scrolling through updates on his phone.

Syrians, Egyptians, Pakistani and Palestinians among survivors

Among the survivors were reportedly 47 Syrians, 43 Egyptians, 12 Pakistanis and two Palestinians.

As the hours passed after the shipwreck, passenger accounts became more detailed.

"They were sailing for days without water and thought they would die. Some say that even during the journey some people died due to the heat and dehydration, but we have no confirmation of these victims," said Giftea, speaking near a tent where some of the survivors were questioned by authorities about their identities.

"Some of the survivors told us that the incident occurred when the Greek Coast Guard tied the fishing ship with a rope and started trying to pull it. Then, without any apparent reason, it capsized," Kriton Arsenis, a member of the Mera25 political party founded by Yanis Varoufakis, told ANSA.

Arsenis had managed to meet some of the survivors inside the warehouse.

The 78 corpses of the victims recovered on June 15 will be transferred to Athens for autopsies.