Two patrol boats picked up 105 migrants late on Sunday
from the boat drifting in extreme sea conditions, with waves as high as eight
metres (26 feet) and temperatures just a few degrees above zero, the coastguard
said in a statement.
The migrants then spent about 18 hours on the decks of
the small patrol boats taking them to Lampedusa, buffeted by high winds and spray.
At least 29 died en route, Lampedusa’s mayor, Giusi Nicolini, said.
Nicolini blamed the closure of Italy’s search-and-rescue
mission, known as Mare Nostrum, last year for the tragedy. “Mare Nostrum was an
emergency solution to a humanitarian crisis, so closing it was a huge and
intolerable step backward,” Nicolini said. Human rights groups repeatedly
warned that ending the mission would endanger lives.
“The small patrol boats were completely swallowed by the
waves during the trip back. If Mare Nostrum were still going, the migrants
would have been given shelter inside a large ship within an hour.”
The patrol boats sent from Lampedusa are small vessels
that ride low to the water so crew members can pull people in. But they cannot
accommodate many below deck.
Mare Nostrum was abandoned partly because of public
concern about the €114m (£85m) cost of the mission in its first year.
The EU now runs a border control operation, called
Triton, with fewer ships and a much smaller area of operation.
Civil war in Syria and anarchy in Libya swelled the
number of people crossing the Mediterranean last year. Many paid smugglers
$1,000-$2,000 to travel.
The UN refugee agency says 160,000 seaborne migrants
arrived in Italy by November 2014 and a further 40,000 in Greece. Thousands
have died attempting the journey.
“To organised crime it’s not important if people make it
across the sea alive or dead,” Nicolini said. “But now, without Mare Nostrum,
it’s as if no one, and not just the criminals, cares if they live or die.”
- BBC
No comments:
Post a Comment