Cast away to die, victims of the people traffickers
CRAMMED on to a flimsy rubber dinghy, these migrants had been left to their fate in the Mediterranean by heartless people traffickers.
By the time rescuers arrived and handed out lifejackets, 13 of the 180 on board were dead.
The survivors, thought to be from subSaharan Africa, were transferred to a ship by Spanish aid workers. The victims, believed to have suffocated in the crush on the dinghy, included children and pregnant women.
The dinghy was found only 15 miles off the Libyan port of Sabratha, less than one-tenth of the way to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a major target for migrants. It is not known how long they had been at sea on Tuesday before they were rescued by the Proactiva Open Arms charity and put on a ship to be taken to Sicily.
The horrifying scenes came as the latest war of words broke out between Brussels and EU countries over how to handle the African migration crisis.
Officials accused member states of only offering ‘measly’ amounts of money to tackle the problem.
Authorities in Italy are braced for a record number of migrant arrivals this year, despite a slight slowing numbers in recent weeks.
UN figures show that 94,373 asylum seekers have arrived in Italy this year, compared with 88,249 over the same period last year.
More than 2,300 migrants have died in the Mediterranean so far this year, despite operations aimed at tackling increasingly ruthless people smugglers who do not care whether their victims survive.
Italian ministers have complained that the country should no longer be forced to bear the brunt of the crisis. They have accused Open Arms and other charities with rescue ships in the Mediterranean of operating as a ‘taxi service’ that encourages migrants.
The groups often operate just outside Libyan territorial waters, which stretch 12 miles from the coast,out rescuesand have within previouslythat limit. carried Charities say they only enter Libyan waters in emergencies with the direction of officials in Rome and Libya, and that the death rate would be higher if they did not operate. Rescues are co-ordinated by the Italian coastguard, which patrols the area. Libya’s UN-backed prime minister, Fayez Al Sarraj, called yesterday for Italian naval vessels to patrol Libyan territorial waters to help combat human trafficking. Italian prime minister Paolo Gentiloni said the move was being considered and ‘could be a very important development’ – despite concerns about conditions in the war-torn country.