Rescuers continued the search Thursday for as many as 200 migrants feared drowned after a fishing boat capsized in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya.
Advertisement
About 100 African migrants now presumed dead were allegedly held in the hull of the doomed boat, survivors told police. The authorities saved 373 and recovered 25 bodies, including those of three children, but it is feared that many more people died as the boat is thought to have been carrying over 500.(ANSAmed).
More than 400 migrants were rescued by Italian and Irish ships.
Police said migrant accounts helped confirm preliminary estimates by rescuers that about 600 were on the 20-metre fishing boat. “One of these, along with two others, commanded the boat; the others were tasked with controlling the migrants, impeding them from moving, even by using violence”.
Numerous asylum seekers were downstairs in the boat’s hull, because smugglers were charging less for those spots than to travel above deck, the global Business Times reports.
The Mediterranean Sea is the world’s most deadly border area for migrants. Overloaded boats might overturn due to sudden heavy and erratic movements of the passengers when the spot the rescue ships approaching. “Our personnel tried to resuscitate them, but unfortunately there was nothing they could do”, said Commander Minihane.
Five crew members of the capsized vessel were among those disembarking, the Italian news agency ANSA said, and Palermo police were questioning the men – Libyans and Algerians – as smuggling suspects. The Italian coast guard and Irish navy said at least 367 people were saved, although 25 bodies also were found in the latest human smuggling tragedy.
The incident triggered a major EU effort to beef up rescue operations closer to Libya, from which many immigrants are leaving.
The Le Niamh arrived near the fishing boat, Marini said, and “at the sight of it, the migrants shifted” to one side and their boat capsized.
Doctors without Borders staffer Juan Matias was aboard the “Dignity1“, the second boat to arrive at the accident scene. More than 2,000 migrants have reportedly lost their lives in 2015 while crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. Italy took in 170,000 in 2014.
Advertisement
“The fact that we were first called to assist this boat and then shortly afterward sent to another one highlights the severe lack of resources available for rescue operations”. In addition, measures were agreed to accelerate the process of deporting refugees back to Africa and the crisis regions of the Middle East.
