Survivors of the smuggler’s boat that overturned off the coasts of Libya lie on the deck of the Italian Coast Guard ship Bruno Gregoretti, in Valletta’s Grand Harbour
Rescue crews searched yesterday for survivors and bodies from what could be the Mediterranean’s deadliest migrant tragedy ever as hundreds more migrants took to the sea undeterred and EU foreign ministers gathered for an emergency meeting to address the crisis.
If reports of at least 700 and as many as 900 dead are confirmed, the weekend shipwreck near the Libyan coast would bring to well over 1,000 the number of migrants who died or went missing during the perilous Mediterranean crossing in the last week. More than 400 are feared dead in another sinking. More than 10,000 others were rescued.
“This tragedy didn’t have to happen,” Sarah Tyler, a spokeswoman for Save the Children, said of Sunday’s incident. “That is almost as many as died in the Titanic, and 31 times the number who died when the Costa Concordia sank.”
Libya is a transit point for migrants fleeing conflict, repression and poverty in countries such as Eritrea, Niger, Syria, Iraq and Somalia, with increased instability there and improving weather prompting more people to attempt the dangerous crossing.
One survivor of the weekend sinking, identified as a 32-year-old Bangladeshi, has put the number of people on board the smugglers’ boat at as many as 950. Authorities previously had quoted him as saying 700 migrants were on board.
The survivor was flown by helicopter to Catania, in Sicily, where he was interviewed by prosecutors. He was being treated in a hospital.
“He is pretty well now and he is reporting that there were really many, many persons including children on the boat. So it’s confirming the terrible news,” said Carlotta Sami, a U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman.
The survivor said some 300 migrants were locked in a hold by the smugglers, and would have been trapped inside when the boat sank, according to Prosecutor Giovanni Salvi, who is conducting the investigation.
Both Salvi and international agencies stressed that the information provided to prosecutors still needs to be confirmed.
A new tragedy unfolded in Greece, meanwhile, where search and rescue operations were underway yesterday after a wooden boat carrying dozens of migrants who departed Turkey ran aground off the eastern Aegean island of Rhodes. At least three people, including a child, were dead, while 93 were rescued. It was unclear how many people were on board and could be missing.
Also yesterday, the International Organization for Migration said its Rome office had received a distress call from international waters in the Mediterranean about three boats in need of help. The group says the caller reported 300 people on his sinking boat, with about 20 fatalities. No details were available about the other boats or their location. Coleen Barry, Milan, AP
No Comments