Barack Obama has questioned why the Titan sub tragedy that killed five men has received wall-to-wall media coverage – while a boat sinking with 700 refugees on board has been ignored.
The former president drew the comparisons while speaking at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation in Athens on Thursday, hours before the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the submersible imploded.
He said it is ‘untenable’ that the doomed expedition got more attention than the hundreds killed when a fishing trawler capsized 50 miles off the coast of Greece.
The overcrowded boat with hundreds of Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian and Palestinian refugees went down on June 14 – two days before the $250,000-a-head Ocean Gate tour to the Titanic wreckage was reported missing.
Eighty-two passengers have been found dead, 104 out of the more than 750 on board have been rescued, and the rest are still missing. More than 100 children are among the missing.
‘There is a potential tragedy unfolding with the submarine that is getting minute-to-minute coverage all around the world,’ he said.
‘This is understandable because we all want and pray that these folks are rescued.
‘But, the fact that this has got so much more attention than the fact that 700 people sank is an untenable situation,’.
The International Organisation for Migration called it one of ‘the worst sea tragedies in the last decade’.
Obama also brought up the parallels in an interview with CNN earlier on Thursday.
When talking about how democracies can’t thrive with high levels of inequality, he used the sub tragedy as an example.
‘In some ways, it’s indicative of the degree to which people’s life chances have grown so disparate.’
On Thursday it was revealed the five inside Ocean Gate’s Titan were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic
The overcrowded boat with hundreds of Pakistani, Syrian, Egyptian and Palestinian refugees went down on June 14 – two days before the $250,000-a-head OceanGate tour to the Titanic wreckage went missing. It is pictured before capsizing
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Medical staffs carry a survivor of the fishing boat tragedy on a stretcher outside a warehouse at the port in Kalamata town
Obama conducted the talk and interview while in Athens with wife Michelle and two daughters Malia and Sasha. On Wednesday they visited the Acropolis to enjoy some downtime.
A remotely operated submarine from a Canadian ship found debris on the ocean floor.
By Wills Robinson, Dailymail.com
