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Rescuers lift a body bag as they reach the port of Lampedusa. All pictures: Associated Press
THREE HUNDRED PEOPLE are now feared dead after a boat carrying up to 500 African asylum seekers caught fire and sank off Italian shores in the worst recent refugee disaster in the Mediterranean.
Rescuers and local fishermen were overcome with emotion as they spoke of chaotic early morning scenes in the water off the Italian island of Lampedusa, with “a sea of heads” as desperate refugees waved their arms and screamed.
There were also stories of survival such as a young Eritrean woman thought dead and laid out with other corpses before medical personnel realised she was still breathing and revived her.
A UN official blamed a repressive policy towards illegal immigrants for the tragedy, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon said he hoped the disaster would be a “spur to action” to protecting migrants’ rights, and improving the public perception of immigrants.
Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano initially reported “93 victims, including three children and two pregnant women”, but rescue divers later said they had identified at least 40 more bodies in and around the sunken wreck.
With only 150 survivors plucked from the water more than 12 hours after the disaster, there were fears that the final toll could rise further to 300 or more people.
“Seeing the bodies of the children was a tragedy. We have run out of coffins,” said Pietro Bartolo, a doctor. “In many years of work here, I have never seen anything like this,” he said.
Interior Minister and Deputy Premier Angelino Alfano gives a statement to the press upon his arrival in the Sicilian island of Lampedusa
Lampedusa is one of the main entry points into the European Union for asylum-seekers crossing from north Africa or the eastern Mediterranean.
Migreurop, a network of immigration charities, estimates 17,000 migrants have died at sea trying to reach Europe in the past 20 years, crossing on rickety fishing boats or dinghies.
Survivors said they were from Eritrea and Somalia and had left from the Libyan port of Misrata.
They told rescuers they set fire to a blanket on the boat to attract the attention of coastguards after their vessel began taking on water and passing fishing boats ignored them.
The fire spread quickly, sowing panic on board, which caused the boat to flip over and sink, as people jumped into the sea to save themselves.
Raffaele Colapinto, a local fisherman who was one of the first on the scene, said: “We saw a sea of heads. We took as many as we could on board.”
Visibly shaken survivors in thermal blankets — many of them bare-chested — were seen on the dock and being treated at the hospital where personnel said many had swallowed gasoline and sea water.
The bodies were being taken to a hangar at the local airport because there was no more room in the morgue on the remote island, which has a population of around 6,000 people.
Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta called the incident “an immense tragedy” and the government declared a national day of mourning on Friday and a minute of silence to be held in all schools.
Alfano called for more assistance from the European Union to deal with the sharp increase in refugee arrivals, calling it “a European tragedy”.
About 25,000 people have landed on Italian shores so far this year — more than three times the number for the whole of 2012, although the figure for 2011 at the height of the Arab Spring revolts in north Africa was higher at around 50,000.
In the last major disaster in June 2011, between 200 and 270 immigrants fleeing Libya are believed to have died off the coast of Tunisia.
A man is carried off an ambulance at the Palermo Civico hospital after being rescued off the Italian island.
Many of the arrivals have been on Lampedusa, and most of them have been Eritreans, Somalis and Syrians.
“We no longer have any space for the living or the dead,” local mayor Giusi Nicolini said, explaining the cemetery and the refugee centre were full.
Letta “should come here and count the bodies”, said the mayor, who often accuses the national government of failing to help the island.
The EU’s Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem called on EU countries to do more to take in refugees, which she said would help reduce the number of perilous Mediterranean crossings.
Pope Francis, who visited Lampedusa in July to plead for more attention to be paid to the plight of refugees, called the disaster “shameful” and urged action to prevent more deaths.
For Francois Crepeau, the UN’s special rapporteur on migrants’ rights, the “criminalisation of irregular immigration” had played a role in the disaster.
“Treating irregular migrants only by repressive measures would create these tragedies,” he said, adding that by closing their borders, European countries are only giving more power to human traffickers.
In Washington, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf extended the “deepest sympathies” of the United States and called on “the international community to work to prevent such catastrophes to these vulnerable migrants”.
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AirBnB is too efficient. It needs a public sector bureaucratic layer to introduce some much needed inefficiency and cost.
@Mike: that made me blow my tea out my nose. Cheers for the laugh Mike!
@Mike:
The bureaucratic layer you refer to also provides a lot of benefits to the consumer. The same people that complain if it is suggested that an industry sector is regulated are the very same people who are quick to jump on the bandwagon if / when a problem occurs.
@Nick Allen: I have nothing against an industry watchdog but in this country all we do is give it to a government department that will only take calls from the public on the second Tuesday of the month between 10:30 and 11am and only when it falls on an odd number date.
@Nick Allen: And yet AirBnB is extremely successful without any regulation.
@Mike: Spot on !!
-Yep – if the market likes it and uses it then something must surely be wrong
@Ben McArthur: The banks were very successful without regulation as well. Wonder how that all worked out?
@Nick Allen: Thats very optimistic. This is just a cap out for a few more coins from the home renters and AirBNB IN ADDITION to penal tax rates.
@Ben McArthur: extremely successful without any regulation at making money for themselves and like the rest of the rental sector seek to hide under the tax radar and are efficient at doing so because that tax stuff is for the PAYE worker!
There are so many negative implications with professional AirBnB operators I think it has to be regulated. It impacts the housing market, rental market, local community, local bed and breakfast & hotel businesses. I have nothing against someone using AirBnB occasionally to rent their property/ rooms but I don’t think it should be allowed as a business
@Nick Allen: I would have no problem allowing as a business but I would suggest owners should register as per the current suggestion, but also they would have to get planning permission for change of use, as air bnb can be seriously disruptive for neighbour’s, who should have an opportunity to object.
@Dermot Lane:
If it is run as a business then should it have to comply to the regulations of that business such as fire safety, health & safety, VAT and most importantly planning permission. I don’t think I would like my neighbors houses to be full time AirBnB houses. I bought my house in a community to bring up my children and to enjoy a home life.
@Nick Allen: Are your kids allergic to tourists or something?
@Ne:
Nope, but if you read my comment it says I said I bought my house to bring up my children in a ‘community’. Constant changing of people staying in a house does not contribute to the community aspect I am looking for
@Nick Allen: I agree with you Nick 100%. You bought into a community where you want to live among other residents with their children. If Airbnb is allowed to continue in it’s current form unregulated, it’s only a matter of time before our children are exposed the inevitable unsavory side of tourism in a big way. Tourism should not be spreading into territories where it does not belong. I have experienced the negative effect of Airbnb as a residential tenant and it was a scary experience I can tell you.
I used to live next door (in an apartment complex) to someone who let out their place regularly on AirB&B. Total and utter nightmare. Transient population and pretty irresponsible. People there constantly for a few nights, living it up – as you do on holidays. That’s ok in a hotel or professional accommodation establishment but definitely no ok in a quiet residential building. Dublin council didn’t care, Air B&B definitely didn’t care and the owner really didn’t care. Some regulation may help in cases like this.
@EmmaLoodle:
Completely agree with you
@EmmaLoodle: Same happened us, the constant banging of suitcases off ever step of the four flights of stairs. Not to mention the travelling sex workers who seem to come part and parcel of Air BnB.
If you make money from it then it should be registered, whether it’s a house, car or business.
AirBnB is destroying families in cities all round Europe who can’t get long term rental, it’s like a disease that keeps spreading
@John: That is pretty extreme comment. Destroying families is one hell of an exaggeration. It brings in money to provide employment too.
Certainly some restrictions should exist but some of these properties would never have been long term lets.
@Kal Ipers: Type in Temple Bar for any date and you’ll be hard pressed to find an Irish Host. These 20 something foreign nationals don’t own the houses they list and many of them have numerous listings. These properties need to come back onto the long-term rental market.
@Kal Ipers: The days of absentee landlords were brought back by Fine Gael lead by Michael Noonan. I agree fully with John how can you suggest that Air B&B is providing employment, to who and how many and more to the point where do they live or have they even set foot in Ireland?
Considering we’re going through a major housing crisis, it really should be regulated. AirBnB created a niche in the housing market, and these properties are charging pretty high rates and I very much doubt all that money is being taxed either. It makes them effectively illegitimate guesthouses, or at least they should be registered as actual B+B’s or guesthouses.
@Alan Sweeney:
Airbnb hand over details to the revenue so anyone who isn’t declaring it would be extremely foolish.
@P.J. Nolan: How about a situation where they contacted the Property owner directly and negotiated a cost, lower than stated on the website? There could possibly be private agreements, or they could pay them with cash in hand. The website would only track registered sales completed on their system.
@Alan Sweeney: how so you contact an airbnb host directly? It’s not possible unless you know the host. Contact details are only given out after you book through the site.
@KingBen: If you have an account, when you click on a property you can click book now and it gives you the option to contact the host. You don’t need to complete a booking to do that.
@Alan Sweeney: that is true but airbnb monitor all communications on their app. You can ask for cash deals and if you try and get caught you are off the platform.
Why not just make it so any house/apartment that is not owner occupied needs to be registered with the PRTB.
I don’t think AIRB&B is causing house shortages and having a major impact on rent prices.
Since 2008 people have had to become more resourceful to earn money. Why? Because they were let down by successive governments. They had their income eroded with pay cuts, tax rises (USC), job loses and higher insurance premiums among other things.
Now the government are looking at how people with entrepreneurial spirit, who did not want to rely on government for welfare, can be pinged for any little extra cash they may have worked to get – legally by the way.
@Ted Logan:
All income need to be considered for tax. People earning money through AirBnB should pay tax on the earnings.
@Nick Allen: if they live in the house then they can earn up to €14k a year without tax liability.
If they do not live in the house and, like I suggested, are registered with the PRTB they will have to declare their income annually to Revenue.
I don’t disagree that people need to be tax compliant but I don’t think more barriers to earning extra cash is what will fix our broken rent/house market.
@Nick Allen: they do and at upto 55% tax. Airbnb reports all revenue to the Irish revenue. No one can avoid paying full income tax.
@Ted Logan: the €14k does not apply to airbnb rental.
Anyone who earns money from letting out rooms or homes should be subject to the same rules as any other business. Tax, vat, public liability insurance, rates etc
@@UK:
And they are subject to tax. So your point is?
@Anton Dec:
What about VAT?
@Nick Allen: and commercial rates
@Nick Allen:
What about VAT? The ‘T’ is not for turkey.
@@UK: the revenue would get less in tax if they only received the above. At the moment they get up to 55% in income tax, prsi and USC.
@Nick Allen: no legal requirement to register for VAT unless you earn over €45k at least make a effort to get it right
AirBnB is a commercial brand
People who let their property through AirBnB are essentially franchise holders for the brand and provide the local product.
any other industry operating like this are licensed, regulated and taxed
there is no reason why AirBnB should be any different
Plus, why should people generating revenue from AirBnB be treated differently to traditional small hotel and B& B businesses. They have to meet standards and if competition is to be fair then AirBnB operators should too.
Also, it should not be allowed for whole premises letting in residential areas. Well and good if you are the owner and letting a room out. but I know of people that rent properties in their own name at the high end of the price market and then take the risk on making more from sub letting as AirBnB. that is plan wrong as it removed properties from the rental stock in a way that keeps homeless people in hotels instead of homes. If you are going to profiteer at the expense of others, then you must the taxes that are appropriate.
Air BnB has come at a time when many hotels have been knocked or closed or guest house that have sold.
Yes there is issues and it has given more short/holiday let options to people who normally would of stayed elsewhere.
Where I live about 5 hotels have closed and became flats, old guest house when the owners got old or passed away. Most have returned to housing.
Air BnB has bought up most of the holiday let sites.
Air BnB has just become an excuse the real issue is a lack of homes for population growth, hotels bnbs closing, and some of the clientele booking.
Even tho you can make more money even with less days used , most landlords would not want the hassle.
Air BnB should be regulated under current laws. And live in home owners who have a spare room should be allowed to use without issue.
@: BS. If that was the case why have the hospitality sector reached full capacity to the point where the state is looking to increase their 9% tax rate? Hotels are being built left right and centre. Perhaps it’s just your area which either doesn’t sell itself well enough or there is no demand for it.
Staying in a luxury huge apartment in Tbilisi right now. Just left another luxury apartment on the 14th floor of Baku. Airbnb isn’t the problem. The problem is NIMBYism and lack of highrise. Until we build highrise and regulate land bank prices, the housing crisis will continue. Whenever we get highrise right we will solve the homeless crisis and allow tourists the pleasure of living in their own home abroad.
If I was a foreigner not having decent Airbnb which we don’t have anyway would be a turn off. I’d be left leaning socially but denying hard workers the sheer pleasure that I get from Airbnb will not solve anything. It’s all too Irish.
Put an earnings limit of say 10 to 15k a year on hosts. ….they’re paying a good chunk of it in tax anyway. Above 10k…register them. The commercial airbnb operators are screwing it for the ordinary airbnb hosts who have no impact whatsoever on the rental market especially in rural areas where tourism is the only industry supporting the local economy. It’s mostly a city problem.
Money
@Willy Malone:
Is there a point to your comment?
@Nick Allen:
I think it’s ‘money’. Don’t quote me on that though.
@Anton Dec: Will not quote you Anton , but you hit the nail on the head ☺
FG trolls like Nick will always want a cut tax wise . It’s a coming …
@Willy Malone:
Always with an agenda. I am not a FG troll and nor am I an FG voter. But you believe your own blinkered view if it makes you happy. However, do try and consider the fact that the provision of a service to the public requires some form of regulation to protect the consumer. Yes, this may be a little beyond the scope of your thought process but if you do try and consider the bigger picture you may see some benefits
The idea of AirBnB is brilliant, but professional businesses should NOT be able to use it to list their properties.
Would be a free licensing system or is it the local councils intention to get a piece of the action due to its success.
Yeh and it will solve the homeless crisis. Its a joke what people choose to blame for the homeless crisis. Next
Its nothing to do with regulation its about penalise you with revenue to let out a room long term instead so to clear up the housing homeless list its nanny state you buy a house or home live in it or not and someone now telling you what way or who to rent it to
There’s a lot of people who have houses rented including professional’s who want to stay under the radar These are the one’s to shine the spotlight on.
Surely it would be netter to register all rental houses on arbnb, cut through an awful lot of public paid pen pushing and at least rental property would be accessible.
Councils and mingling ministers are not required.
There’s a lot of mis information out there as regards air bnb and small traditional bed and breakfasts.
Bed and breakfasts with 3 bedrooms or less never needed planning permission and were never regulated. What’s the difference? We are all obliged to pay tax on earnings which some of us do . As in any business there are people who do and people who don’t. Air bnb are very successful and there’s nothing to stop guests houses hotels etc joining up and benefitting from what a very syccesful company are doing right. The housing crisis is the responsibility of the government and not private individuals who are getting off the rear ends and doing something to make life better for themselves,Begrudgery is Ali w and well in Ireland! There’s no difference between air bnb and bird faulted and other letting agencies .. they are all involved in short term holiday letting.
Get the public sector involved and they will destroy that company.
@Mike: of course this sector should not pay any taxes or ensure safety regs. Sure isnt that whole tax for the PAYE workers?
have your say