Eight hundred are believed dead in Sunday’s migrant boat disaster off the coast of Libya. Among the 27 survivors rescued, two suspected of people trafficking have been arrested by Italian police.
“We can say that 800 are dead,” said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy on Tuesday, citing the survivors’ accounts of the deadly crossing.
Italian police said they had detained a Tunisian man believed to be the captain of the vessel and a Syrian, allegedly a member of the ship’s crew, taken from a group of 27 haggard survivors who arrived in the Sicilian port of Catania on Monday evening. Both face charges of people trafficking.
“There were a little over 800 people on board, including children aged between 10 and 12. There were Syrians, about 150 Eritreans, Somalians … They had left Tripoli at about 8:00 am on Saturday,” Sami said.
The survivors hailed from Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh, she added, and all had been taken to nearby holding centres.
One other survivor was taken to hospital in Catania, on Sicily’s east coast.
Those who escaped with their lives described to officials the moment the 20-metre trawler carrying them capsized after a Portuguese merchant ship approached the vessel, causing a stampede.
Under-fire EU ministers meanwhile agreed on a 10-point plan to double the resources available to the current EU border surveillance mission Triton, as the UN’s refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration recounted what those onboard had witnessed.
Italian and Maltese navy boats meanwhile continued to search for the victims of Sunday’s disaster, which brings to an estimated 1,600 the number of migrants who have drowned in the Mediterranean this year.
Earlier reports said 28 survivors have been found so far, along with 24 bodies, which were taken to Malta.
The incident is believed to be the Mediterranean’s worst migrant disaster.
