90 refugees found dead
Death toll from sunken boat carrying asylum seekers might be as high as 350
UP to 350 people were feared to have died yesterday after a boat packed with African migrants caught fire and sank off the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, in what Italy called a “tragedy for Europe”.
The accident happened when a fire broke out on board a boat packed with about 500 Eritrean and Somali refugees as it neared the end of its journey from the Libyan coast and approached Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost strip of territory.
The boat’s engine stopped working and it began to take on water, prompting some of the passengers to burn a sheet to summon help from the island.
But that started a fire on board and terrified migrants rushed to one side of the 20m boat, causing it to capsize about 1km off the coast.
The Italian coastguard managed to rescue 155 people but 220 were still missing.
More than 90 bodies were pulled from the sea, but when divers were sent to inspect the wreck, which sank in water about 30m to 40m deep, they saw dozens more trapped in the vessel. Among the victims were at least three children and two pregnant women.
The bodies of the dead were covered in plastic sheeting and laid out along the quayside of the island’s tiny port, as soldiers wearing protective face masks brought more ashore and emergency officials sobbed with grief.
Angelino Alfano, the deputy prime minister, said Italy urgently needed assistance from Europe in dealing with the exodus of refugees and asylum seekers from Africa and the Middle East.
“This is not an Italian tragedy, this is a European tragedy,” he said.
“Lampedusa has to be considered the frontier of Europe, not the frontier of Italy.
“I saw 93 bodies, a horrific sight that I never thought I would witness.
“We cannot remain inactive. We have to get control of this situation.”
The tragedy underlined the dangers faced each year by the tens of thousands of desperate migrants and asylum seekers who flee war-torn and poverty-stricken countries in the hope of forging new lives in Europe.
The number of migrants has sharply increased since the Arab Spring of 2011 and the ensuing political chaos in countries such as Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and Syria.
In the first six months of this year, nearly 8 000 migrants and asylum seekers arrived in Italy, while 600 reached neighbouring Malta.
Lampedusa, a speck of land covered in cactus and scrub with a single port and a string of white sand beaches, is the destination for many of the migrants because it lies just 120km off the coast of Tunisia. About 13 500 have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean since 1998, according to Fortress Europe, an internet blog.
The loss of life was condemned as shameful by Pope Francis.
“The word that comes to mind is shame,” he said. “Let us unite our strengths so such tragedies never happen again.”