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UP TO 400 illegal migrants died after their vessel capsized off the Libyan coast at the weekend, according to survivors who have now been brought to Italy, where tension is mounting over a surge in boat arrivals from North Africa.
The Italian coastguard on Monday said they had managed to rescue 144 of the people on the sunken vessel, while nine bodies were also recovered.
The International Organization for Migration and the charity Save the Children said between 144 and 150 survivors arrived at Reggio Calabria, on Italy’s southern tip, on Tuesday morning.
“There were 400 victims in this shipwreck, which occurred 24 hours after (their vessel) left the Libyan coast,” Save the Children said in a statement, citing survivors.
“There were several young males, probably minors, among the victims” and also children among those rescued, the international NGO said.
IOM spokesman in Italy Flavio Di Giacomo told AFP several of the survivors had told his organisation there were between 500 and 550 people on board when the ship sank:
We are continuing to investigate in order to understand how the shipwreck happened.
Initial investigations indicate the boat may have capsized after passengers started moving when they saw the Italian rescue team.
The latest tragedy came as Italian authorities said around 8,500 migrants had been rescued at sea between Friday and Monday, reigniting a debate in Italy about whether the country has a duty to house all new arrivals.
Recent good weather in the Mediterranean has prompted a spike in the number of migrants attempting to reach Italy aboard boats.
An increasingly violent and chaotic situation in Libya, a key jumping off point for migrants, has also helped prompt the hike in asylum seekers trying to make it to Europe.
Italian authorities say more than 15,000 migrants have arrived so far in 2015. There were 15,000 in April alone last year and an average of 25,000 each month between June and September.
- © AFP 2015.
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It’s astonishing that if an aircraft crashed killing 400 people it would be on every news programme, but it seems that migrants, fleeing from horrendous circumstances don’t elicit the same responses.
An already unseaworthy boat sinking is a lot less out of the ordinary than a plane crash killing 400 people.
True Phil wonder what Kay ‘the pulse’ Burley thinks .. She’s probably on the ‘campaign’ in Boston or Matlock
Desperate and a sad situation for those poor people
Send the boats back or sink them at the point of origin. Rescuing and admitting endless streams of Africans only compounds the problem and increases social tensions in a bankrupt overpopulated continent
“As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.” Noam Chomsky
And Scipio he was referring to the hatred of the vulnerable you’ve expressed in your comment
Scipio’s ability to empathise disappears when it comes to anyone who is potentially Muslim
Your quote is irrelevant. I don’t hate these people. But nor do I think it’s a solution to let hundreds of thousands of Africans migrate to Europe every year as you seem to think it is.
It’s a recipe for chaos.
You’re in denial which makes it even more relevant to your attitudes
@boganity you’d enjoy the Four Horses documentary if you haven’t already seen it
You’d just know when it’s an article about immigrants dying Scipio would be on expunging his excess bile. You can take Rennies you know Scopio, might help you out. There’s nothing you can take for ignorance though, so you’ll have to live with that beast.
James Comisky I hadn’t heard of it, but just looked at the trailer on YouTube & will watch it tonight… Thanks
@Boganity. Why don’t you treat us with some more delicious bites of Noam Chomsky! Like excerpt below,-
“Noam Chomsky has shown his true colors in his recently published “reaction” to the targeted killing of Osama Bin Laden. He apparently thinks Osama Bin Laden is the innocent victim of a cold-blooded murder that is worse than if George W. Bush were to be assassinated in his “compound.” He doesn’t believe Bin Laden’s own admission of complicity in the murder of 3,000 people on 9/11, writing that it is about as credible as Chomsky’s “confession that I won the Boston Marathon.” Nor does he believe the evidence gathered by the 9/11 Commission, the grand jury that indicted Bin Laden, the numerous confessions and claims of responsibility by Al Qaeda operatives, and the video showing those who flew the planes in the presence of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. He believes there is absolutely no “evidence”—”nothing serious”—that Bin Laden played any role in 9/11. He also accuses President Obama of “simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that ‘we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda.’” To avoid any appearance of partisanship and to show that he is an equal opportunity despiser of all American presidents, he writes that “uncontraversally” President Bush’s “crimes vastly exceed bin Laden’s.” (Guernica. My Reaction to Osama bin Laden’s Death. Noam Chomsky. May 6, 2011.)http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/2115/bin-laden-defender-noam-chomsky
@Scipio. My suggestion would be for the UN to send them to Israel to learn how to turn the barren dessert into a productive oasis and then return them home to do likewise with North Af. On the return they could dump their fatalistic belief-”Allah Willing” into the Med. and get crackin’ with the new ‘Can Do ‘ belief.
Wasn’t all of North Africa a place of knowledge, abundance and power in pre-Mohammedan times?
These people need to be educated on Europe, they think it’s the land of milk and honey.
It is compared to where they are fleeing from
True…maybe we need to be educated on where they come from
You can ask them that when their living next door to you
This is a problem which won’t improve until conditions in Libya improve. It was a functioning country until a few years ago.. now its a basket case. The countries involved in its “liberation” have a responsibility here
Youre right, we should tax devout muslims living in the EU for their support in trying to establish Islamic states in previously secular countries
True, But even outside of that the EU also has a responsibility. In relation to north Africa more generally and also the continent as a whole… the trade practices on the EU are significantly damaging to the economies, and particularly with regard to farming, which prohibits growth and development in these countries. That plays a significant role in the continued destabilisation which drives people out of their home countries and attempting to enter the EU.
“and particularly with regard to farming”
Outside of costly irrigation projects, I don’t see what potential there is for farming in North Africa. The population of most North African countries simply cannot be sustained by local production alone. Compare that to much more agriculturally friendly regions like Ireland which produces enough food to feed 10x our population annually.
This is a huge problem for Europe and in particular Italy and Malta who are bearing the brunt of these ships. More money needs to be put into EU border control but will tax paying citizens endorse this? I doubt it.
They are running out of half decent boats so this will become more and more common. The Italian navy are picking them up near the Libyan coast. They should just provide a ferry at this stage because it would be cheaper than using military crafts.
Did you really have to start the article with “up to 400 illegal migrants”? What’s wrong with “up to 400 people”?
Can not believe how many people downvoted that. No human being is illegal!
It appears they cram the unfortunates on boats sail them just off the coast and then ring Italy to come rescue them.Can they not rescue them back to the port they just left?
have your say