2 arrested in deadly shipwreck
More calls for help as migrant crisis grows; EU pressed to act
CATANIA, Italy — Two of the 28 survivors of a migrant- smuggling boat have been arrested on human trafficking charges, Italian authorities announced late Monday, as more boats carrying migrants sent distress calls from the Mediterranean.
The two men who were arrested were described by an Italian prosecutor as the vessel’s captain, a Tunisian national, and a crewman, a Syrian national.
Officials fear as many as 700 people may have died late Saturday when the boat packed with Europe-bound migrants, mostly from Africa and Asia, capsized in the waters between Libya and Italy.
Authorities did not provide additional details on the nature of the trafficking or the charges against the two.
Police apparently interrogated the survivors after they were pulled from the water late Saturday or early Sunday. All 28 survivors were brought by an Italian coast guard vessel Monday to the port of Catania.
Shocked by the capsizing, the latest and potentially most deadly of many such tragedies, European lawmakers struggled to find new ways to confront an escalating crisis.Hundreds on board were apparently locked into a pair of lower decks when the 75-footlong wooden fishing vessel tipped over and sank in deep waters off the coast of Libya, authorities said. Smugglers routinely pack migrant ships with “layers” of passengers, experts say, with many consigned to lower decks where the odds of surviving a wreck are greatly reduced.
“Many will not have had a chance to escape and will have gone down with the ship,” Giovanni Salvi, a Sicilian prosecutor investigating the case, told reporters here.
On Monday, officials reported receiving at least two more calls for help from several craft at sea carrying some 300 migrants.
Decrying what he called an “escalation in these death voyages,” Italian Premier Matteo Renzi urged Europe to put the focus on preventing more boats from leaving Libya, the source of 90 percent of migrant traffic to Italy. “We are facing an organized criminal activity that is making lots of money, but above all ruining many lives,” Renzi said at a joint news conference with Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat.
European Union Foreign Affairs Chief Federica Mogherini said this weekend’s toll had “finally” fully awakened the European Union to the evils of human trafficking.
The EU has been under increasing criticism for lagging in its response to the crisis, with two shipwrecks believed to have taken the lives of as many as 1,300 migrants in the past week. Some 400 people are believed to have drowned in another capsizing on April 13.
Meanwhile, many details of the weekend incident remain unclear.
As with most such high seas sinkings, a precise death toll will likely never be known. One survivor, identified as a 32-year-old Bangladeshi, has put the number of people on board at as many as 950. Salvi said the coast guard estimated more than 700 people were on board.
The ill-fated boat, authorities say, set out from Libya, where smuggling rings have thrived in the absence of a functioning government after the 2011 overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, who had cooperated with Italy in efforts to reduce illicit immigration.
European Union ministers convened in Luxembourg on Monday amid fresh demands that authorities find a new way to approach the migrant crisis and reduce the death toll. Human rights activists have harshly assailed Italy for scaling down its searchand-rescue efforts last year in what was called a budgetary move.
Some argue that bolstered search-and-rescue operations act as a magnet for migrants, giving them confidence that they will be saved and taken to Europe should their craft falter. But others argue that there is no evidence that enhanced rescue efforts provide an incentive for illicit immigrant.
At any rate, last weekend’s mass deaths appear to have produced a consensus that it is time for Europe to come up with a new strategy to patrol its southern flanks.
“The reputation of Europe is at stake,” Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said before the Luxembourg meeting. “Europe has to do more. Now, unfortunately, the reality has hit us in the face.”
“The reputation of Europe
is at stake.” The Associated Press contributed.