Burn victims among latest rescued migrants
Italy picks up 10K people in past week
MILAN — The unabated flow of migrants fleeing instability in Libya brought a new horror on Friday: The discovery of 20 migrants adrift at sea who had suffered grave burn injuries in a cooking gas explosion before departing Libya and were forced onto a smuggler’s boat without treatment.
Italian ships have picked up 10,000 people, many refugees of war and persecution, over the past week, an unprecedented number in such a short period. The influx is putting pressure on Italy’s shelter system and raising calls for a better response to the emergency.
Friday’s rescue comes after the feared drowning of more than 400 migrants in two shipwrecks in the past week, bringing to more than 900 the number of people who have died or gone missing so far this year making the perilous crossing — 10 times higher than over the same period last year.
In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged more intense cooperation with Italy on threats coming from the instability in Libya, which has contributed to the influx of migrants across the Mediterranean. Libya, the closest point in north Africa to Italy, is a transit point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea.
Speaking after a meeting with the visiting Italian prime minister, Obama promised to “work together even more intensively to encourage cooperation on threats coming from Libya, including the growing ISIL presence there, as well as additional coordination with other partners in how we can stabilize what has become a very deadly and difficult situation.”
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said he expected to see results of the commitment in the coming weeks. “It has to do with the justice and the dignity of mankind,” he said.
Among the burn victims rescued Friday was a 6-monthold baby. They were among 70 migrants who were rescued and transported to the Italian island of Lampedusa. One of the burn victims, a woman, died en route.
The U.N. refugee agency said the cooking gas explosion occurred at a holding center run by smugglers who demand thousands of dollars for a place on unseaworthy boats making the journey across the Mediterranean. “A gas cylinder exploded, and killed several people and injured many others,” said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman in Italy, Barbara Molinario. “The traffickers would not allow them to leave and reach the hospital, so they did not get treatment for a few days. And then they were put on a boat.”
The UNHCR released video images of the badly burned victims being taken from an Italian vessel after arriving in Lampedusa. More gravely injured victims were moved by stretcher. Five of the most seriously burned were flown to hospitals in nearby Sicily.
“This latest horrific incident involving human smugglers shows the urgent need to create safe legal alternatives so that refugees don’t need to put their lives at risk in this way,” the UNHCR said in a statement.
Prosecutors in Sicily, meanwhile, were investigating 15 Muslim migrants for allegedly throwing 12 Christian migrants overboard in a religious dispute. Survivors, who police said resisted being thrown overboard in part by holding on to each other, reported the incident after being rescued.
The Organization for International Migration said the rate of migrant and refugee deaths this year is 10 times higher than in 2014, even though the number of those who made it across safely is about the same. The agency put arrivals so far this year in Italy through Thursday at 21,191. That compares with 26,644 for the first four months of last year.