Up to 88 migrants trying to reach Europe from Africa were feared dead on Sunday night after two disasters in the southern Mediterranean.
In one of two fatal incidents, a boat carrying about 120 people sank after an apparent collision with an Italian naval vessel sent to rescue them. Officers of the corvette Minerva were due to be questioned by prosecutors from Sicily following the disaster early on Saturday, in which some 50 migrants were feared to have perished.
On Sunday, a naval plane spotted 10 bodies in the water 130km south of the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is between Sicily and Libya. Ten people were rescued, but survivors said that another 28 had gone missing after their rigid inflatable boat capsized.
Saturday’s incident began at 3.35am when a fishing vessel reported a boat laden with migrants in danger of sinking just south of Lampedusa. Survivors later said there were 120 people aboard who had set off three days earlier from a Libyan port near the Tunisian border. The Minerva set off in relatively calm seas.
According to early reports, the migrants capsized their vessel by rushing to one side of the boat during the rescue. But Italian newspapers on Sunday carried survivors’ accounts of a collision.
A 26 year-old Moroccan told La Repubblica: ”When we saw the Italian ship getting closer, we thought we were safe. But then came the impact. The vessel crashed into the bows of our boat. Everyone began screaming, pushing and moving aft. A few minutes later, I was in the water.”
Lorenzo Forcieri, junior minister with responsibility for the navy, told the newspaper Quotidiano Nazionale, ”According to the commander of the Minerva, the sinking was not caused by the collision.”
Only 70 people, most from the Maghreb and the Horn of Africa, were brought ashore on Lampedusa. After an all-day search, the coastguard reported finding 10 bodies; 40 people were missing. Two people were flown to hospital in Sicily suffering from exposure. Four men alleged by the survivors to have been crewing the boat were arrested on suspicion of people-smuggling.
More than 11 000 migrants have crossed the treacherous waters between Libya and the Italian islands south of Sicily this year. Italy’s Interior Minister, Giuliano Amato, said at the weekend he hoped prosecutors and judges would ”show the same dedication to tracing those responsible [for trafficking in human beings] as they rightly dedicate to less serious offences”. – Guardian Unlimited Â