Families hold on to hope

By Kim Tae-gyu

The relatives of almost 300 missing passengers on the sunken ferry Sewol are hoping against hope that their loved ones might still be found alive.

“The government only attempts to find excuses in order not to continue their rescue operations. Don’t talk about strong currents and bad visibility any more. Please find my son,” said the father of a missing high school student.

A mother of the Danwon High School in Ansan, south of Seoul, claimed that there are survivors.

“My husband approached the Sewol aboard a private ship. He said that a diver heard children asking for help inside the capsized vessel. The government has to do something more to rescue them,” she said.

The parents of the Ansan high school convened early on Thursday.

Reporters tried to interview them but they were too emotional to talk.

“We don’t trust reporters. We have iterated that there are survivors but you did not print any articles about this. Leave us alone,” one angry parent blurted out.

They also fumed at politicians who visited a gymnasium in Jindo and a hospital in Mokpo near the sunken ferry where the families of the missing were gathered.

“They merely think about votes ahead of the June local elections. I do not want to see them roaming around,” an unidentified man shouted in the indoor Jindo gymnasium.

The families also rebuked the education office of Gyeonggi Province, which is in charge of the Ansan high school, because it sent inaccurate messages twice early Wednesday that all students had been rescued.

The government also misreported the total number of survivors.

The families are angry with the captain, who was reportedly among the first to disembark from the ship without helping to evacuate passengers.

After being investigated by the Coast Guard Thursday, the captain apologized to the families of the passengers.