Some local fishermen who assisted in the rescue operation have criticized the Egyptian coast guard: (ARABIC) “The coast guard arrived in the afternoon, after 5 PM”.
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Less than half the estimated 450 migrants believed to be on a boat that capsized off the Egyptian coast have been rescued, the country’s military said, according to CNN.
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.
A day later, the Egyptian authorities arrested four members of the capsized boat crew over human trafficking charges, while a senior official announced that an anti-illegal immigration bill has been presented by the government to the parliament for approval.
The boat crew is accused of human trafficking, wrongful death, wrongful injury and using a fishing boat for another objective.
Authorities also issued arrest warrants for five more people wanted in connection with Wednesday’s shipwreck, according to officials.
Hundreds of migrants are feared dead after Wednesday’s sinking, with just 163 people rescued and 43 bodies recovered, the country’s military said in a statement.
The provincial governor, Mohammed Sultan, said that there were probably between 250 and 400 passengers, the Associated Press reported, but Egypt’s state-run news agency, MENA, put the total at about 600. He said 157 people were rescued.
The Egyptian news portal, Al-Youm al-Sabei, published interviews with several survivors who said that before their journey the migrants had been “stored” for several days in chicken farms by the traffickers to evade police.
The search for bodies and survivors has been expanded around the spot where the vessel capsized, said Sultan.
Thousands of illegal migrants have made the risky sea voyage across the Mediterranean in recent years, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Thousands of illegal migrants have made the unsafe sea voyage across the Mediterranean in recent years, fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East. Egypt has in recent months seen an uptick in the number of migrant boats leaving its Mediterranean shores.
Egyptian army officers help a man up as they check the body of one of his relatives who arrived in a boat carrying migrants which capsized off Egypt’s coast, in El-Beheira Egypt, September 22, 2016.
Numerous survivors were briefly detained by police. Some of those rescued who suffered injuries were taken to hospitals, where they lie handcuffed to hospital beds under police guard.
According to BBC online, the boat was being held off the coast while increasing numbers of migrants were being brought to it.
“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 the survivors he has seen were Egyptian, he said, but he believes there were also people from Sudan and Somalia.
More than 300,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean so far this year from various points of departure, the United Nations said this week. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article.
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