ATHENS 

More than 1,000 people staged a protest in Greece’s capital on Thursday over the sinking of a fishing boat packed with migrants off the country’s southwestern coast that left at least 79 dead.

Gathering in Syntagma Square in Athens, the protestors, mostly from left-wing organizations, including the PAME trade confederation, student associations and Greek Communist Party (KKE), protested the European Union’s migrant policies as well as NATO and imperialistic policies which they claimed led to the flow of migrants in the Mediterranean.

"They turned the Mediterranean into the sea of death,” they chanted.

The crowd then marched to the office of the EU in protest.

The sinking, which occurred Tuesday, was also protested in other cities including Patras, Larissa, Thessaloniki and Lamia.

Meanwhile, the Greek authorities held nine of the 104 survivors, all Egyptians, on suspicion of being human traffickers, according to public broadcaster ERT.

It said the migrant boat had started off from Egypt, not Libya as claimed on Wednesday.

In a related development, Greek Supreme Court Prosecutor Isidoros Dogiakos on Thursday appointed a Supreme Criminal Court deputy prosecutor to supervise the investigation of the incident.

The leader of main opposition party SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, spoke with European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson on Thursday in relation to the shipwreck tragedy, the party said in a statement.

“This incident demonstrates in the clearest way the failure of the EU to promote a structured refugee migration policy that puts human life as the first priority,” Tsipras, said.