Support NeoGAF

[Walpurgis]

Hundreds feared dead in migrant shipwreck off Libya

Hundreds of people are feared to have drowned in the southern Mediterranean last week, in what would be the deadliest migrant shipwreck in months.

A repurposed fishing boat overloaded by smugglers with up to 500 Africans hoping to reach Italy from eastern Libya sunk as passengers from smaller boats were trying to board it, survivors told the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The survivors’ accounts described panicked passengers desperately trying to stay afloat by jumping between vessels.
[...]
The IOM said its staff met on Tuesday with survivors of the incident who were rescued on Saturday by a Filipino cargo ship off the Libyan coast. The group said some 200 migrants left the Libyan coastal city of Tobruk on several small boats, each carrying between 30 to 40 people and bound for a larger vessel on the high seas.

IOM said the larger vessel, which was already desperately overcrowded with about 300 people, “began taking on water” when the newcomers got on. As the larger vessel began to sink, “panicking passengers tried to jump into the smaller boats they had arrived in.”

The survivors will not be deported to Turkey under the terms of a new deal between Turkey and the EU, since they departed from Libya – a war-torn country with whom the EU has not yet negotiated a returns agreement.
[...]
As a result, their arrivals highlight the limits of the EU-Turkey deal as a means of preventing migration to Europe. While the deal has made it harder for people to reach Greece, other routes to Europe exist – including from Libya.
[...]
In a statement, UNHCR called on Europe to provide “increased regular pathways for admission of refugees and asylum seekers to manage the emergency in Europe. Additional possibilities for resettlement and humanitarian admission, family reunification, private sponsorship, and humanitarian and refugee student and work visas all serve to reduce demand for people smuggling, onward movement, and dangerous boat journeys.”

TL;DR: Refugees got onto small boats off of Libya. The smugglers then sailed those small boats for several hours before reaching a large ship (from Egypt) that was already carrying 300 people. They transferred the people from the small boat to the big ship in the middle of the sea and the big ship sank, killing close to everyone. The few that managed to jump back to the smaller boats floated in the Mediterranean for three days without food and water before they were saved by a Filipino cargo ship. Most of the refugees were from Somalia while the rest were from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Sudan and Egpt. This comes almost exactly a year after 800 people drowned making the same trek. So far this year, more than 700 people have died and in 2015, 3,771 people died or went missing trying to reach Europe.

My mother heard about this over the weekend on social media. People were posting pictures of the love ones they lost and many of them seemed to be in the early 20s. One of my father's customers came to him crying because her brother was on that boat. This whole thing is so terribly sad.

I haven't been paying attention to new developments like the Turkey deal but looking at that second map, it seems that they have simply closed the safest route to Europe. People are still coming, just on the more dangerous routes. Anyone know about the Tunisia to Sicily and Morocco to Spain routes?

 

[ClosingADoor]

Impossible situation this. Take the people in, then the smugglers make money and more come and more die. Refuse to take them, more die trying to get in anyway.

Route to Spain is pretty closed I think. Morocco and Algeria are pretty stable, so not much going on there. Libya to Italy seems to be rising now, although more with African immigrants then Syrian ones like earlier with Greece.

 

[Walpurgis]

Impossible situation this. Take the people in, then the smugglers make money and more come and more die. Refuse to take them, more die trying to get in anyway.

Route to Spain is pretty closed I think. Morocco and Algeria are pretty stable, so not much going on there. Libya to Italy seems to be rising now, although more with African immigrants then Syrian ones like earlier with Greece.

There should be a push to get refugees to purchase life jackets. While they are obviously poor if they are making this trek, many of them (like the deceased brother I mentioned) have relatives in the west that can collect money for them. This is how they pay the smugglers and this would also be how they purchase life jackets.

I also think that refugees in immediate danger should be flown to safety so that they can claim their human right to asylum but I know that will never happen.