U.N. agency: More than 800 believed dead in ship disaster

CATANIA, Italy — The United Nations refugee agency said Tuesday that more than 800 people were believed to have drowned in the weekend sinking of a boat packed with migrants trying to reach Europe, making it the deadliest such disaster in the Mediterranean.

New details of the tragedy emerged as the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and other aid agencies interviewed some of the 28 survivors who arrived overnight in Catania on the island of Sicily.

Survivors put the number of passengers on board the three- deck fishing trawler at 850, according to UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards in Geneva. Only 24 bodies have been recovered.

“From available information and the various accounts we’ve had, UNHCR now believes the number of fatalities to have been over 800, making this the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean that we have recorded,” Edwards told reporters in Geneva.

The International Organization for Migration said the rate of migrant deaths in the Mediterranean this year is far higher than in 2014, when a total of 3,279 migrants died. That, in turn, was much higher than in 2013, when around 700 people died, the agency said.

So far this year, 1,776 have died, according to the U.N. refugee agency, which estimates that 219,000 people made the crossing in 2014.

The 2015 death toll “could well top 30,000,” said Joel Millman, the IOM spokesman. “We just want to make sure people understand how much more … rapid these deaths have been coming this year than last year.”

Among the arrivals overnight were two suspected smugglers, who were immediately detained for investigation of aiding and abetting illegal immigration.

The captain also was being investigated for multiple counts of manslaughter and causing a shipwreck.

Survivors told aid work- ers the wreck was caused when one of the smugglers crashed the boat against the Portuguese-flagged King Jacob container ship that had responded to a distress call, according to UNHCR spokeswoman Carlotta Sami.

Prosecutors said that after the trawler’s captain, a 27-year-old Tunisian identified as Mohammed Ali Malek, rammed the Portuguese vessel, terrified migrants rushed to one side of the overcrowded boat, which was already unbalanced from the collision. The trawler pitched in the water before finally tipping over, and sank.

Most on board were unable to escape because they were locked below deck on the trawler’s lower two levels. Hundreds more were squeezed on the upper deck, according to prosecutors.

The weekend deaths have jolted the European Union into trying to come up with a plan to address the crisis, with Italy demanding that it not be left alone to shoulder the burden of rescues and that the EU focus on preventing the boats from leaving Libya.