ROME- In late March a boat with dozens of African migrants aiming to reach Italy’s shores were left to die in the Mediterranean, reports the Guardian’s website. It is thought that the boat was carrying 72 migrants when it left Tripoli for the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
European and Nato military units are believed to have ignored the boat’s pleas for help despite having made contact. All but 11 “died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days”.
Under International maritime law, all vessels are to answer “distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible”. The UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, “has called for stricter co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives”.
“The Mediterranean cannot become the wild west” said spokeswoman Laura Boldrini.
Since the Arab spring in North Africa, almost 30,000 migrants are thought “to have made the journey across the Mediterranean over the past four months” and “large numbers have died en route”. Some 800 migrants are believed dead after having left Libya on boat last month and having “never made it to European shores”.
The Guardian claims that the vessel with 72 migrants on board left Tripoli on 25 March. Ethiopians were the most consistent in number, 47, but there were also “seven Nigerians, seven Eritreans, six Ghanaians and five Sudanese migrants”. The 4boat aimed for Lampedusa when it set off “but after 18 hours at sea the small vessel began running into trouble and losing fuel”.
The migrants had a satellite phone with which they were keeping in touch with Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest based in Rome “who runs the refugee rights organisation Habeshia”. Zerai, in turn, was keeping in contact with the Italian coastguard so he could know the boat’s location.
A military helicopter soon appeared telling the vessel’s captain to hold his position until a rescue boat would arrive. But no boat ever arrived, and “no country has yet admitted sending the helicopter that made contact with the migrants”. “We advised Malta that the vessel was heading towards their search and rescue zone, and we issued an alert telling vessels to look out for the boat, obliging them to attempt a rescue” said a spokesman for the Italian coastguard. Maltese authorities have denied any involvement with the vessel.
The vessel had only a dozen litre of fuel left in its tank but the boat’s captain made a final attempt to reach Lampedusa. Unfortunately, the boat ran out of fuel and lost its way. “We’d finished the oil, we’d finished the food and water, we’d finished everything” said Kurke, a migrant who was on the boat.
Not even a Nato aircraft carrier spotted the boat as they moved towards it on March 29. At one point they were so close that “it would have been impossible to be missed” but from that point onwards people “began succumbing one by one”. According to the Guardian’s inquiries, the identity of the Nato aircraft carrier is likely to have been French. “Nato units are fully aware of their responsibilities with regard to the international maritime law regarding safety of life at sea” said an official.
On April 10, the boat washed up “near the Libyan town of Zlitan” and only 11 immigrants were still alive. The survivors were arrested and sent to prison, but they say they are “willing to tackle the Mediterranean again if it means reaching Europe and gaining asylum”.
The Daily Blitz: news, politics, entertainment, economics, sport
You have to Login