Ten women died Thursday in a new migrant boat accident in the Mediterranean, Italian authorities said as they began the grisly evacuation of hundreds of corpses from a salvaged wreck. The latest tragedy occurred when a rubber dinghy packed with African migrants began taking on water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.
An Italian coastguard patrol boat, the Diciotti, went to its aid and was able to rescue 107 people (74 men, 34 women and two children) despite a 30-knot wind and a swell generating two-metre waves. The rescuers found ten corpses in the bottom of the partially-submerged dinghy, all of them women. It did not appear that there had been any other casualties, a coastguard spokesman told AFP.
A total of 116 people were safely picked up in a separate operation in waters between Sicily and Libya on Thursday. The coastguard said they did not expect more departures following a change in the weather. More than 64,000 people have landed at Italian ports since the start of the year, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, according to a tally by the UN refugee agency which does not include the latest arrivals. Some 10,000 would-be emigrants to Europe have died in the Meditteranean since the current crisis erupted in 2013.
The latest deaths came as Italian authorities prepared to begin removing the remains of hundreds of corpses from a fishing boat which sank off Libya last year in one of the worst maritime accidents in the Meditteranean since World War II. The boat, in which more than 700 people are feared to have died, was raised from the seabed on Monday and towed to the Sicilian port of Augusta.
Italian Prime Minsiter Matteo Renzi, who authorised the salvage, said Thursday the horror of people being driven to their deaths after being crammed onto a rickety ship had helped to change Europe's approach to the migrant crisis. "This ship contains stories, faces, people, not only a number of corpses," he said in a post on his Facebook page. "I authorised the navy to salvage the wreck to give burials to these brothers and sisters of ours who would otherwise have stayed for ever at the bottom of the sea. "I did it because we Italians know the value of the word 'civilization'.
"And it is about reminding Europe about the values that really count." Navy officers told reporters that the wreck of the boat would be covered by a specially-designed refrigerated tent on Thursday evening or Friday morning, allowing the removal of corpses to begin. "According to the survivors there were around 700 people who died but given the size of the boat we are hoping that there were fewer," said Admiral Pietro Covino "But it seems certain there are at least 300 still on board."
Comments
Comments are closed.