ROME (AFP) – Italian coastguards are searching the Mediterranean Sea for the bodies of 73 migrants from Eritrea feared dead from hunger and thirst.
They began looking for the missing on Friday after five other migrants – rescued the day before off the island of Lampedusa – said they had perished during the voyage and that their bodies had been dumped at sea.
‘Searches are underway, but for the moment we have recovered no bodies,’ an official with the customs coastguard service in Lampedusa told AFP.
The emaciated survivors said their small 12m boat, which set off from Libya, had been adrift without fuel for 20 days, and that they received no help from several passing vessels.
‘As if fear were more important than the duty to help others at sea,’ said UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Laura Boldrini, describing the reported failure to help as alarming.
But Maltese authorities have cast doubt on the migrants’ story.
A spokesman for the Maltese armed forces told AFP that the migrants had not been in distress when they were approached by a Maltese patrol boat on Wednesday and had refused offers of help.
Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni told Sicilian officials to investigate the survivors’ claim, saying ‘the version of events provided by the migrants remains to be verified’.
Eight bodies have been spotted in the Mediterranean in recent days by aircraft from the EU border patrol agency Frontex. They were seen in Libyan waters but have not been recovered, Maltese authorities told AFP. It was not clear if they were from among the 73 migrants missing.
The reported disappearances reignited a furore over Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s anti-immigration policies, including a May deal with Tripoli aimed at preventing Europe-bound migrants from using Libya as a springboard.
‘The fight against illegal immigration is one thing, but the lack of respect for human rights is another,’ said Dario Franceschini, leader of Italy’s opposition Democratic Party.
The disappearances are ‘yet another tragedy that could have been avoided, a tragedy that weighs on our nation’s shoulders’, said Leoluca Orlando of the centrist Italy of Values party.
Right-wing parties backed Berlusconi’s controversial deal with Libya, via which migrants from around Africa head for Europe, and helped introduce a new law in August that made illegal immigration a crime.
‘Let’s not forget that Italy hosts millions of foreigners out of humanitarian concern,’ said Maurizio Gasparri from the majority centre-right PDL party.
The deal with Libya has been condemned by human rights organisations, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as well as the Vatican, which say asylum seekers could be among the immigrants.
On Friday, the newspaper of Italy’s Catholic Church criticised Western countries for failing to do more to help migrants, even comparing their plight to that of the Jews under the Nazis.
‘At the time (of World War II), it was totalitarianism and terror that caused people to close their eyes,’ Avvenire said in a front-page editorial.
‘Not today. A calm indifference, resignation, maybe even an uneasy dislike related to the Mediterranean… The West’s eyes are closed.’
Last year the Italian interior ministry recorded some 36,900 arrivals of boat people, most from Libya, a 75 per cent increase from the year before, but arrivals have fallen off sharply since the signing of the May deal.
UNHCR: “We are shocked”
We are shocked by the accounts we heard on Thursday (August 20) from five Eritreans who are allegedly the only survivors from a boat that set out from Libya over 20 days ago. They report that they were stranded at sea without fuel, water or food.
According to the survivors around 80 people, mostly from Eritrea, boarded a small boat in Tripoli to attempt to reach Italy. After three days at sea the boat ran out of fuel. A few days later water and food ran out. As thirst and hunger set in people started dying, one by one, as the boat drifted in the sea. As passengers died, the survivors threw them into the sea.
According to the survivors a fishing boat came across the five survivors and offered them some bread and water, but then left them. On August 20th the Guardia di Finanza (Italian customs guard) found the boat. The survivors are in a very poor health and were taken to Italy for treatment.
Apart from the shocking tragedy this represents it gives UNHCR cause for concern that these people report being passed by many vessels without any assistance being offered. This is contrary to the long-standing maritime tradition of rescue at sea which has been under threat and is increasingly being eroded.
UNHCR would be very concerned if the hardening of government policies towards boat people has the effect of discouraging ship masters from continuing to honour their international maritime obligations.(Reuters Alert)
