Fadi left the Netherlands to travel to Greece in search of his brother Mohammed, who was aboard the trawler that sank near Greece last week.

"Thank God you are alive," said Fadi as he held his brother's face between his hands.

The moment was the only one of joy in a morning of anguish and mourning at the Kalamata port on June 16, where survivors of the shipwreck spent a second night.

Faced with a large clutch of journalists who had gathered in front of him, Fadi, who fled Syria, said he had arrived in Kalamata from the Netherlands, where he had been granted asylum.

Fadi has come to Greece in search of his 18-year-old brother, who he had lost all traces of after the shipwreck south of Pylos.

Shortly after seeing his brother and bursting into tears, Mohammed was put on a coach headed for the Malakasa migrant reception center north of Athens.

Survivors fear rejection of asylum applications

The exchange between the two brothers occurred through a police barrier set up to prevent journalists from speaking to the migrants.

"Europe, Europe!" yelled one of them prior to being put on the coach. Some 71 people were escorted by a Greek immigration ministry delegation to start the asylum application process.

A total of 27 are still hospitalized at the Kalamata hospital in good condition. The only one whose health is of concern is a 16-year-old boy with respiratory problems that doctors say are nonetheless improving.

"Many, before leaving, said they are afraid that their asylum requests will be rejected. They continued to repeat that they want to live here and that Europe is their only hope," said the Red Cross's Marilena Sotiriou.

"They say they spent 5,000 euros for the journey and want the chance to work, to be able to build a new life," she added.

Relatives of the missing, who have arrived from Italy, the UK and Germany, remain in the port trying to track down their family members. Most of them cannot share Fadi's joy.

Greek authorities say number of missing not verifiable

The Greek authorities said it will be impossible to gather the precise number of people missing.

"It is not known how many women and children were in the hold and the lower parts of the ship. However, according to the accounts given, at the time of the incident many women and children were sleeping," Christina Nikolaidou, communications chief for the Greece office of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), told the Greek newspaper Efsyn

IOM interpreters managed to speak to many of the survivors.

"The people are in shock, but insist on the fact that onboard there were about 700-750 people. But it is not so much the shock that prevents them from having a clear idea as the fact that they were packed into the ship so closely that that had a limited visibility range," said Nikolaidou, noting that "many were travelling with their families".