Smugglers ‘hurled’ migrants overboard

ROmE: Survivors of a shipwreck in Italy that killed up to 100 migrants have claimed they were hurled into the sea by traffickers trying to lighten the boat before it broke up in a storm.

About 180 migrants from Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia and Pakistan were packed into a 17metre wooden boat that foundered yards off the coast of southern Italy on Sunday after sailing from Turkey.

Officials have listed 62 dead, including bodies found at sea and washed up on the beach at Steccato di Cutro in Calabria, and 81 survivors, meaning another 37 people may be lost at sea - taking the total killed to about 100.

As mothers and children in hospital and at a local migrant centre searched for family members, survivors recounted the last moments before their overcrowded boat broke up. “The traffickers started to throw kids out, they grabbed them by the arm and threw them in the sea,” one told La Stampa newspaper.

A second said four traffickers pushed 20 people overboard before the boat sank. “They saw lights on shore, believed the police were awaiting and changed course, planning to land further along the coast,” he told Corriere della Sera.

“But they needed to hurry, pick up speed, and the only way was to lighten the load on board, which is why they threw people into the waves,” he added.

Two suspected traffickers among the survivors, one Turkish and one Pakistani, are thought to have been identified by Italian police.

Matteo Piantedosi, the interior minister, appeared to blame the families, claiming: “Desperation can never justify travelling in conditions that endanger the lives of their children.”

Fourteen children were among the dead, including three children of an Afghan man who told rescuers: “They were with me on the boat, but I haven’t seen them since.”

A 12-year-old Afghan boy who survived lost nine members of his family. A tearful teenage boy who lost grip on his seven-year-old brother said: “What happened is my fault, I didn’t protect him.”