Migrant nightmare relived

DOCUMENTARY: IMAGES AND RECORDINGS CAPTURE FINAL MOMENTS OF 268 WHO PERISHED

Story of three surviving Syrian doctors who lost children in the disaster.

Rome

The death of dozens of children in a 2013 shipwreck after repeated SOS calls were ignored has returned to haunt Italy as survivors relive the nightmare in a new documentary.

Images and recordings from the tragedy in which 268 migrants drowned in the Mediterranean capture the horrific final hours of those whose deaths would shame Italy into launching a wide scale search and rescue mission.

A unique destiny: three fathers and the sinking that changed history by Fabrizio Gatti was broadcast on television on Sunday and will be the subject of a web series this week on the site of La Repubblica daily.

The documentary follows three Syrians: Mazen Dahhan, now a doctor in Sweden, Ayman Mostafa, a surgeon in Malta, and Mohanad Jammo, an anaesthetist in Germany.

All three lost children in the October disaster; the first two lost their wives to the waves as well.

The three Syrian doctors were among the 212 survivors plucked from the sea by rescue craft Libra. Twenty-six bodies were recovered that day, while 240 people are still missing, including about 60 young children.

The shipwreck sent a shockwave through Italy, which was reeling from the deaths just a week before of 366 migrants who drowned off Lampedusa.

Libra was commanded by Catia Pellegrino, the first woman to command an Italian military vessel, and she was awarded a presidential medal of honour despite initially ignoring pleas for assistance.

Two investigations into manslaughter and failure to assist people in danger were launched against Pellegrino and several Italian officers, but were later dismissed. –