25 Africans die on desperate boat journey to Italy
Rescuers
on board the boat in Lampedusa where 25 migrants died trying to reach Italy from Libya. Photograph: Alessia
Capasso/AFP/Getty Images
Hundreds
of migrants fleeing unrest and conflict in Libya
and across North Africa are believed to have died since the beginning of the
year in desperate journeys across the Mediterranean.
The
50-foot (15-meter) boat was carrying 296 people, including women and children,
said Coast Guard Capt. Antonio Morana.
Some
of them were stowed away in the hold, which also served as an engine room,
according to the ANSA news agency. As the air became unbreathable from exhaust
fumes, migrants tried to exit but the boat was too packed for those standing
above to move aside.
"From
what they told us upon arrival, there was no air to breathe, apparently they
were so crammed there was nowhere to go," Laura Boldrini, spokeswoman in Italy for the
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told The Associated Press.
At
least some of the migrants may have died from asphyxiation, Boldrini said.
She
added that the desperate conditions apparently also led to tension and possible
scuffles on board as people struggled to survive. However, she stressed that an
investigation currently under way in the nearby city of Agrigento was necessary to ascertain what
happened.
The
officials found the corpses – all young men – after boarding the boat just a
few miles off Lampedusa, the small island closer to North
Africa than the Italian mainland. One photo posted on Italian
newspapers showed the lifeless body of a man being pulled out of the boat by
mask-wearing rescuers.
The
bodies were put in green bags and lined up on Lampedusa's deck, before being
moved to an immigrant shelter on the island. An autopsy will be performed,
according to Agrigento Prosecutor Renato Di Natale, who will conduct the
investigation.
Survivors
were taken ashore and also moved to the immigrant shelter.
"The
survivors are shocked," Boldrini added.
Unscrupulous
smugglers pack too many people on unsafe boats, she said. And "this leads
to a situation on board where your death is my life, where you risk it all.
It's ferocious."
Morana
said all the victims Monday were believed to be of sub-Saharan origin.
According to the survivors, the boat had set sail from Libya two days
ago, he said. Boldrini said some 50 Somalis were believed to be on the boat,
fleeing famine in the Horn of African region.
Some
20,000 people have arrived in Italy
by boat in recent months following unrest in Libya
and Tunisia.
Dozens
of those boats are filled with sub-Saharan Africans who were working in Libya, then
lost their jobs and feared for their lives as conflict erupted between Moammar
Gadhafi and the rebels trying to oust him. In April, a boat believed to be
carrying 300 migrants from Libya
capsized, leaving 250 people presumed dead.
Separately,
scuffles broke out in the southern city of Bari between immigrants held at a local center
and police, leaving scores injured. Footage on the RAI state broadcaster showed
the immigrants occupying railway stations and hurling objects at police vans.
ANSA
said the immigrants had been at the center for several months and were
protesting lack of progress in processing their requests for asylum.
AP
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