For the second time in a week, a smugglers’ boat overloaded with migrants capsized in the Canal of Sicily on Friday as it made the perilous crossing from Africa to Europe. At least 34 people drowned, but 223 people were rescued in a joint Italian-Maltese operation, officials said.
Helicopters ferried the injured to Lampedusa, the Italian island that is closer to Africa than the Italian mainland and the destination of choice for most smugglers’ boats leaving Tunisia or Libya.
It was off Lampedusa that a migrant ship from Libya capsized on Thursday last week with about 500 people aboard. Only 155 survived.
Photo: Reuters
Friday’s capsizing occurred 105km southeast of Lampedusa, but in waters where Malta has search and rescue responsibilities.
The two shipwrecks were the latest grim reminder of the extreme risks that migrants and asylum-seekers often take in an effort to slip into Europe every year by boat.
Facing unrest and persecution in Africa and the Middle East, many of the migrants think the Lampedusa escape route to Europe is worth the risk.
“They do know that they are risking their lives, but it is a rational decision,” said Maurizio Albahari, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame. “Because they know for a fact they will be facing death or persecution at home — whatever remains of their home, or assuming there is a home in the first place.”
What drives them is the hope that they will have a better life in Europe for themselves and their children, he said.
In the latest case, the Italian coast guard said it received a satellite phone call from the boat that it was in distress and was able to locate it based on the satellite coordinates, Italian coast guard spokesman Marco Di Milla said.
A Maltese aircraft was sent up and reported that the boat had capsized and that “numerous” people were in the water.
The aircraft dropped a life raft, and a patrol boat soon arrived at the scene, according to a statement from the Maltese armed forces.
Late on Friday, Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat reported that 27 bodies had been recovered, three of them children.
He said 150 survivors were rescued aboard a Maltese ship.
An Italian patrol boat had another 56 survivors, while a fishing boat had 15, Italian navy commander Marco Maccaroni said.
Between the Italian and Maltese ships, the total of survivors came to 223.
The incident occurred as recovery operations continued on Friday off Lampedusa for victims of the shipwreck on Friday last week. The death toll stood on Friday at 339, including a newborn recovered with its umbilical cord still attached, Di Milla said.
The recent deaths prompted renewed calls for the EU to do more to better patrol the southern Mediterranean and prevent such tragedies — and for countries like Libya to crack down on smuggling operations.
“We cannot allow the Mediterranean to become a cemetery,” Muscat told a news conference in Valletta.
Lampedusa is the destination of choice for smugglers who usually charge more than 1,000 euros (US$1,355) a head and cram the migrants onto boats that routinely run into trouble and require rescue.
Fortress Europe, an Italian observatory that tracks migrant deaths reported by the media, says about 6,450 people died in the Canal of Sicily between 1994 and last year.
Once in Italy, the migrants are screened for asylum and often sent back home if they do not qualify.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, many of the arrivals were considered “economic migrants.”
However, many of the latest arrivals are fleeing persecution and conflict in places such as Syria and Eritrea, and qualify for refugee status, UN officials say.
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