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From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon May 09 2011 - 12:30:06 EDT
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/unhcr-witness-report-ship-600-migrants-sank-off-122932166.html
UNHCR: Witnesses say ship with 600 migrants sunk off Libyan
coast<http://www.thecanadianpress.com/>By
Colleen Barry, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – 26 minutes ago
MILAN - A ship carrying up to 600 migrants trying to flee Libya has sunk
just off the coast of the North African country, the UN Refugee Agency said
Monday, citing witness accounts.
The agency is trying to confirm what happened to the passengers when the
vessel broke apart at sea shortly after leaving a port near Libya's capital
Tripoli on Friday, spokeswoman Laura Boldrini said.
There was no information on how many people might have died, and the
uprising in Libya makes any official accounting unlikely.
Witnesses who departed on another boat shortly after reported seeing the
ship broken apart and bodies floating in the sea, Boldrini said. The second
boat with witnesses aboard arrived later in Italy, she said.
The number of migrants fleeing North Africa's shores have increased since
the region has been engulfed in a series of uprisings.
At least three other boats that departed Libya in late March have
disappeared, with hundreds feared dead, Boldrini said.
She said that the UNHCR advised the Italian Coast Guard at the time that
boats carrying 120 and 360 migrants respectively had departed Libya in late
March but never arrived in Italy.
The Italian Coast Guard later told the UNHCR that they were not able to come
up with any information, she said.
The fate of those migrants is also not clear, but their relatives fear they
are dead since they have lost contact with them. In both cases, the ships
had satellite communications before going missing.
Boldrini said the incidence of deaths and disappearances among seafaring
migrants fleeing unrest and repressive regimes in Africa is increasing as
smugglers begin to use bigger boats that they are not capable of
controlling.
Another aid group, the International Organization for Migration, said it is
impossible to know how many people have drowned while trying to reach
Europe.
"There's been no way of charting for sure how many boats have left, how many
people never made it. Some of them we will never know about," said IOM
spokeswoman Jemini Pandya.
In another case, relayed by an Eritrean priest in Rome to Boldrini, a boat
with more than 70 people on board ran into trouble in the seas, she said.
Only a handful survived, making their way back to Libya, according to the
priest.
London's Guardian newspaper reported Monday that 61 African migrants died of
hunger and thirst on that ship after being ignored by a NATO warship and
helicopter in March around the time the alliance was readying for military
strikes against the Gadhafi regime.
NATO denied the accusation, saying in a statement that the only vessel
operating on the specified dates — March 29 or 30 — in that area was the
Italian ship Garibaldi, and that it was 100 nautical miles out to sea, while
the ship is believed to have floundered closer to shore.
"Therefore, any claims that a NATO aircraft carrier spotted and then ignored
the vessel in distress are wrong," the military alliance said.
UNHCR's Boldrini, meanwhile, called for an improvement in communication
between coast guards, military and commercial ships.
"We need take heed of a situation that is very much evolving. We have to
co-operate much more closely," she said.
In some instances, she said, ships in the heavily trafficked Mediterranean
might see the boats but not intervene if there isn't an obvious mechanical
problem or emergency.
"Rescue should be automatic, without waiting for the boat to break apart or
the engine to stop running," Boldrini said.
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