World leaders, including Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, discussed the migrant crisis this week while gathered in NY at the United Nations General Assembly. “Search and rescue operations are still ongoing”, the statement read.
Advertisement
The boat went down a few miles off the coast of northern Beheira province, near the port of Rosetta.
Egyptian authorities have arrested at least four people in connection with the deaths of a group of refugees whose boat recently capsized in the Mediterranean.
“Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit”.
Egyptian mother reacts after seeing the body of her son who was in a boat carrying migrants which capsized off Egypt’s coast, in Al-Beheira, Egypt, September 22, 2016.
Rescuers have saved 150 of the boat’s passengers, MENA said. Some people were trapped below deck with nearly no chance of escape, and many women and children were among the dead, survivors said.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The boat was transporting Egyptian, Syrian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somali migrants. He did not say how the agency arrived at that figure.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail pledged the government’s full support for the continuing rescue mission and said those responsible must be brought to justice.
“But we haven’t seen this before”, he said of the number of bodies from the latest incident. The estimates came from UNHCR’s contacts with Egyptian authorities. Fishing boats in the vicinity were the first to provide help.
Frontex chief Fabrice Leggeri said in June that Egypt was becoming a “departure country” for migrants. The boat has now been missing for over 24 hours and hope of recovering more people is dwindling.
“Usually it works that way: The migrants reach them with dinghies, with rubber boats”, he said. “Those are dead, for sure”.
Smugglers in the region reportedly charge refugees about 35,000 pounds, almost $4,000, each for the perilous journey to Europe. “They paid money to go and die”, he said.
They said the four were members of the vessel’s crew and were remanded in police custody for four days pending further investigation. According to the officials, the four suspects are accused of involuntary manslaughter and human trafficking. He also added that “70% of those coming to Italy come from sub-Saharan Africa”.
Thousands of illegal immigrants cross the Mediterranean Sea every year, and Egypt has become a popular destination to begin the journey.
More than 300,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year from various points of departure, the United Nations said this week. More than 12,000 migrants arrived in Italy from Egypt between January and September, compared to 7,000 in the same period past year, it said. Some of those rescued who suffered injuries were taken to hospitals, where they lie handcuffed to hospital beds under police guard.
His brother and cousin were on board the boat that capsized.
“There is no way to end this except by uprooting its causes; and this will be by reaching political agreements, not by closing borders”, he said.
Most of those who survived were picked up by fishermen, not official services, even though the boat was so close to land that those on board could make SOS calls from their mobile phones. “[Those who] knew how to swim moved away, leaving behind women and small children”.
Advertisement
Frontex director Fabrice Leggeri said that work was being done to determine whether there was a link between the drop in numbers departing from Turkey – where only about 50 people a day are trying to make the journey to reach Greece compared to thousands this time a year ago – and the increase in numbers from Egypt.
