Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2014 19:54:15 +0200
Traffickers 'laughed' as they capsized boat to drown refugees
<http://www.afp.com/> AFP
By Ella Ide September
18, 2014 5:05 PM
Rome (AFP) - Survivors of Europe's most deadly migrant shipwreck in years
have described the horrifying moment traffickers capsized their boat and
left them to drown, as the EU cried murder and vowed to step up the fight
against people smugglers.
Fresh witness testimony confirmed around 500 people drowned after their boat
sank off Malta on Wednesday, including up to 100 children who had been
making the treacherous journey from Egypt to Italy, the International
Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Tuesday.
"After they hit our boat they waited to make sure that it had sunk
completely before leaving. They were laughing," one survivor told the
Geneva-based organisation.
According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), over 2,500 people have drowned
or gone missing attempting the crossing in 2014, and in several separate
incidents survivors have spoken of traffickers overfilling rickety boats or
locking people below decks to suffocate.
"These are not accidents but murders. We'll increase and intensify our
efforts to fight human trafficking," said Michele Cercone, spokesman for EU
Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom.
"This latest tragedy shows that despite the efforts put in place we'll
witness these kind of problems as long as the pitiless smugglers who are the
real criminals behind this are free to act," he said.
Malmstrom said the European Commission was "already working on a EU plan to
tackle migrant smuggling," but insisted member states must be "willing... to
create more legal ways to Europe, such as accepting more resettled
refugees."
- 'Forced into the water' -
In the incident off Malta, just 10 people survived. Two Palestinians were
taken to Italy, two to Malta, while the other six, including a two year-old
Syrian girl, were taken to hospital in Crete. The toddler remains in a
critical condition.
The Palestinians, aged 27 and 33, told IOM their boat had been intentionally
sunk by the people smugglers after the migrants refused to change to a
smaller, less seaworthy vessel -- a story corroborated by the survivors in
Crete.
"A violent argument ensued. The 10 smugglers, said to be Palestinian and
Egyptian, began yelling," the IOM said, citing the latest testimony from
Greece.
The enraged traffickers "rammed" the boat which "began to sink immediately,
while the smugglers stayed in the area until they were certain that the
migrant's vessel had sunk," it said.
Those who had managed to jump to safety into the smaller boat were "forced
into the water" by their assailants.
"When the boat was first struck, one of the passengers killed himself in
despair by hanging," one of the survivors said.
The Greek coast guard said the toddler's parents had passed her in the water
to a 19-year-old Syrian woman because she was wearing a lifejacket, while
they went to search for another of their children. The woman and child
survived, the parents did not.
IOM said the Palestinians were rescued on Thursday, while the rest were not
picked up until Friday -- after two days in the water.
"The mounting death toll is a blight on the reputation of the EU and its
member states who must urgently act together, now, to ensure that no more
men, women and children lose their lives," said John Dalhuisen, Europe and
Central Asia Director at Amnesty International.
"With hundreds of thousands fleeing war and poverty across the Middle East
and Africa, the priority must be to protect lives rather than creating an
impenetrable fortress," he said.
- 'Trapped below deck' -
The Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian and Sudanese migrants had set out from
Damietta in Egypt on September 6.
Four bus loads of migrants were loaded onto the boat, which was between 15
and 18 metres (50 to 60 feet) long, until there were some 300 people crammed
below deck and 200 on top -- including up to 100 children, the IOM said
based on the survivors' reports.
"The 300 people who were in the lower deck were trapped and drowned
immediately. The survivors say they watched as those thrown in the water
clung to each other trying to stay alive," it said.
The two Palestinian survivors, who have requested asylum in Italy, said they
paid a "travel office" in Gaza $2,000 (1,544 euros) each for the trip, with
the money coming from grants they had been given to rebuild their homes.
While the EU said it was keen to prosecute traffickers, Cercone pointed out
that their operational bases were outside European Union territory, "making
it very difficult to track them and crack down on them."
He urged greater partnerships with North African countries in the fight
against people smugglers, but acknowledged that with countries like Libya
mired in unrest and political chaos, the task is no easy one.
*******************************************************
'Going crazy': survivors tell of Europe's deadliest migrant shipwreck
<http://www.afp.com/> AFP
By Will Vassilopoulos 20 hours ago
Chania (Greece) (AFP) - After three days adrift, drinking his own urine to
survive as he watched dozens of people sink to a watery grave, Mohamed Raad
started to lose his grip.
"The third day, people began going crazy," recalled the 23-year-old
Palestinian, one of just a handful of survivors of one of Europe's deadliest
migrant shipwrecks.
"I had a dream that I entered a hotel to book a room and took my lifejacket
off," he told AFP. "That is when I realised I was sinking, and put it on
again."
Raad, a barber from Gaza, was one of some 500 people making their way from
Egypt to Europe on September 10, when human traffickers rammed their vessel
in what international authorities have called a "mass murder".
He was beneath deck when the boat was hit and didn't see it happen. But he
heard the screaming that followed.
"It didn't last long, it was a minute before the boat sunk," he told AFP
from the port town of Chania on Crete, where he was brought after being
rescued by the Greek coastguard last Friday.
Raad said he survived the sinking by climbing out of a porthole to escape,
and later found a life jacket.
Between 80 and 90 people survived the initial sinking and banded together in
the wreckage of the vessel. "There were women and kids that were thirsty.
The men urinated in bottles and we drank it," he said.
- Children 'slip into water' -
Raad described the horror of parents having to abandon their children as
they succumbed to hunger, thirst and hopeless hours in the freezing waters
off Malta.
"Every day we would lose people in the sea... Some people had their children
with them.
"When they died, they would let the children slip into the water."
Nineteen-year-old Doaa Al Zamel, a Syrian woman living in Egypt, did her
best to stay alive for the sake of two children entrusted into her care by
desperate parents.
"My goal was to save the children, that is why I stayed alive," she said.
Tragically, a one-year-old girl from Gaza died shortly before the rescuers
arrived.
But Al Zamel managed to save a two-year-old girl from Syria, who spent five
days hovering between life and death in intensive care, before her condition
improved on Wednesday.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), up to 100
children were part of the group making the treacherous crossing to Italy.
Raad credited his survival to the life vest, to knowing how to swim -- and
to his faith. "God gave me help and patience, and that is why I survived."
Only 10 people were rescued alive. Two Palestinians were taken to Italy, two
to Malta, while the other six were taken to hospital in Crete.
Those in Greece include Raad and Al Zamel, two other Palestinian men, an
Egyptian man and the Syrian toddler.
The survivors have told IOM that their boat was sunk by the people-smugglers
after the migrants refused to change to a smaller, less seaworthy vessel.
Others said the traffickers "laughed" as the boat sunk.
Al Zamel says the assailants were on a fishing boat and appeared to be
Egyptians or Libyans.
"(They) asked us to stop. They started throwing metallic objects and wood
while swearing at us," she said.
"They hit us until the boat sank."
According to the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), over 2,500 people have drowned
or gone missing attempting the crossing in 2014. In several incidents,
survivors have described traffickers overfilling rickety boats or locking
people below deck to suffocate.
Raad explained how a life of hardship in Gaza had forced him to face the
perils of the Mediterranean crossing, a journey for which he paid $2,100
(1,600 euros) to smugglers.
"From the moment I was born I've never seen a good day," Raad said.
"Always in tyranny, war, no jobs. We don't know when we will be killed," he
said.
Al Zamel, who worked as a hairdresser in Egypt, planned to get married once
she reached Italy.
Her fiance -- who found the smugglers and helped arrange the crossing --
died in the shipwreck.
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