Quantcast
Channel: Nibiru - Planet X » Migracije i kampovi
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 19

Mediterranean Shipwrecks Leave Over 700 Refugees Dead

0
0

Sep 15, 2014

About 500 migrants are feared to have drowned after the boat carrying them from Egypt to Malta was apparently rammed and deliberately sunk by people-traffickers, an intergovernmental group has said.

The news – based on the accounts of two Palestinian survivors – emerged on the same day up to 200 more people were feared dead when another boat heading to Europe capsized off Libya.

The Geneva-based International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said there was no independent verification for what happened to the vessel heading to Malta, mainly because only nine people are believed to have survived. The IOM’s account comes from the two Palestinians, who were rescued by another boat and taken to Sicily.

Malta’s armed forces said it had flown seven survivors, who were suffering from hypothermia, to a hospital in Crete. It said initial information pointed to a collision of some sort between a boat carrying up to 400 migrants and another vessel.

If the Palestinian men’s account is correct, by the IOM’s tally about 2,900 migrants have died this year in the Mediterranean against 700 for all of 2013. “If this story, which police are investigating, is true, it would be the worst shipwreck in years – not an accident but a mass murder, perpetrated by criminals without scruples or any respect for human life,” the IOM said in a statement.

The UN High Commission for Refugees said the situation in the Mediterranean was unclear and it was trying to get confirmation of five shipwrecks. A spokeswoman for the UN High Commission for Refugees, Carlotta Sami, described it as “without any doubt the deadliest weekend ever in the Mediterranean” and the agency said it believed at least 500 were dead or missing in the last three days.

Leonard Doyle, an IOM spokesman, said the Palestinian men recounted having boarded the people-smuggling vessel in Damietta, Egypt, on 6 September. Midway through the voyage the people-smugglers, who appeared to be traveling in a separate boat, ordered the migrants, who also came from Syria, Sudan and Egypt, to switch to a smaller, less seaworthy vessel. The migrants refused to do so.

Doyle said: “The survivors said the traffickers became so enraged after the migrants refused to board the replacement craft, there was an argument, a fight, and that the smugglers used their boat to sink the one the migrants were on. It seems they intentionally rammed the ship.

One of the Palestinian man, aged 27, said he was able to cling to a lifebuoy for a day and a half, initially with around six other passengers.

Doyle said: “Over the next 24 hours they all disappeared. The man said that among these was one young Egyptian who said he had left home to earn money and pay for the heart medicine of his father.”

The survivor was eventually picked up by a Panama-registered container ship that was already carrying 386 survivors from another sunk migrant boat, and taken to Sicily. The same ship seemingly picked up the other Palestinian man, who is aged 33. The IOM has not spoken to the other seven survivors.

The IOM learned of the men’s account over the weekend and sent an Egyptian investigator to speak to them. A spokeswoman for the Italian coastguard said it had no information on the apparent sinking as it had not had contact with any survivors. A search of the area had uncovered no trace of a boat or any bodies, she added.

Earlier on Monday, the Libyan navy said a migrant boat carrying around 250 people capsized off the coast near Tripoli. While 36 people were confirmed rescued, many others were feared dead.

A navy spokesman, Ayub Qassem, told Reuters the boat had sunk near Tajoura, east of the capital, Tripoli. He said: “There are so many dead bodies floating in the sea.”

Doyle said the IOM had not previously heard of so many migrants drowning by a deliberate sinking, but that if it had happened it was possible no one survived. “On the face of it it’s looking like a horrific incident,” he said.

Huge numbers of people are attempting to flee from Africa to Europe, with numbers sharply up this year, in part due to the continued violent chaos in Libya and Syria. More than 100,000 people have been rescued since January, the UNHCR, says.

According to the agency that monitors the EU’s external borders, more migrants are likely to risk the dangerous crossings this year than at the height of the Arab spring.

By mid-August this year there had already been almost as many illegal border crossings counted as there were in the whole of 2011, when the number reached 140,000, said Frontex.

Doyle said the situations in Libya and Syria were undoubtedly part of the reason for the increased deaths, with “desperate” migrants willing to try the crossing in almost any vessel. “They’re very much at the mercy of traffickers,” he said.

Earlier this year a leading Libyan people smuggler, speaking anonymously to the Guardian, explained how he uses a different tactic to ensure the trafficking boat can be used again.

The man said that once the Italian military was en route to the ship he and his crew would decamp to a small rubber inflatable. Once the migrants are removed they return to the smuggling boat and return in it to Libya.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/15/migrant-boat-capsizes-egypt-malta-traffickers

Sept 16, 2014

Up to 100 children may have been among about 500 migrants who drowned in the Mediterranean when their boat was sunk by people smugglers, an intergovernmental group has said after further interviews with survivors.

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which on Monday released the first information about the apparent mass murder during the voyage between Egypt and Malta – based on interviews with two Palestinian men on the vessel – said the other survivors corroborated the account and gave additional details. They reiterated the account that the traffickers become enraged when the migrants – most of whom were Palestinian, Egyptian, Sudanese or Libyan – refused to transfer to a small boat that appeared unseaworthy, and rammed the migrants’ vessel with their craft. “After they hit our boat they waited to make sure it had sunk completely before leaving. They were laughing,” one of the survivors told the IOM.

Based on other testimony about the traffickers counting 400-450 people who began the voyage aged 10 and older, and a total number aboard of about 500, the IOM said it was possible between 50 and 100 children had drowned.

A two-year-old girl was among nine migrants rescued, the IOM said. One of the nine has since died and another is in a critical condition, it added. The survivors include four Palestinian nationals, an Egyptian and a Syrian.

The voyage reportedly set off from Damietta in Egypt on 6 September, with the sinking taking place four days later. Two Palestinian survivors were pulled separately from the sea by a container ship and taken to Sicily.

Their testimony was released by the IOM on Monday, the same day that news emerged of about 200 migrants feared drowned after another boat sank off Libya.

One of the survivors of the incident – a 16-year-old Palestinian boy identified only as Hamed – gave an account to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. “When they told us that we had to go on to that other boat, we refused because we’d doubtless have finished up at the bottom of the sea,” he said. “At that point, the traffickers … rammed us, smashing the bows and we all finished up in the sea.”

Hamed said he had been saved by the Panamanian-registered merchant vessel, Pegasus. He was quoted as saying that, after being rammed by the traffickers, “We were asking for help and about to drown, and they were watching us as if they were in a cinema.”

He added: “A lot of us, myself included, did not know how to swim. I’d never seen the sea before. Seven or eight of us clung to a lifebelt, but as time went by a lot of them didn’t make it and only two of us – I and another lad, a compatriot who was wearing a life jacket – were left. Then he disappeared too. Others were clinging to little bits of wood and the current carried them away. For many hours – I don’t know how many – we remained in the water in those conditions.On Tuesday, the IMO said it had spoken to four of the surviving passengers, who have since been flown to Crete. They described being ordered by the traffickers to change boats three times during the first four days of the trip. “When they refused a fourth switch – because they felt the smaller vessel was unsafe – a violent argument ensued,” the IOM said.

“The smugglers threatened that if the passengers did not board the smaller boat they would be returned to Egypt. The migrants persisted saying they would rather return than board the smaller boat.”

At this stage, the survivors said, the 10 traffickers, said to be Palestinian and Egyptian, “began yelling and throwing sticks at the migrants”.

“The smugglers’ vessel approached the boat with migrants, some of whom managed to jump into the smaller boat. Witnesses say the smugglers forced them in the water and then rammed the bigger boat. It began to sink immediately while the smugglers stayed in the area until they were certain that the migrant’s vessel had sunk,” the IOM said.

One survivor said one passenger opted to hang himself as the boat sank rather than drown.

The two Palestinian survivors taken to Crete said they had paid $2,000 (£1,230) to a “travel office” in Gaza, using money they had received to rebuild their damaged home. They were told to head to a meeting point in Egypt, where they were taken by bus to Damietta. When they reached the ship, there were already migrants on board.

The IOM said: “The captain did a headcount and, without including minors under 10 years old, counted 400-450 migrants. Based on this testimony, the IOM believes up to 100 children may have been aboard and are lost at sea.

An estimated 300 people were put below deck and 200 on the upper deck, the survivors said. Those on the lower level were trapped and drowned immediately when the ship was rammed.

Some of the migrants clung to buoyant objects for up to three days, but many drowned when a change in the weather brought strong winds and high waves…

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/16/migrants-children-drowned-boat-mediterranean


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 19

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images