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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon May 09 2011 - 13:19:40 EDT
Nato units left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst
Exclusive: Boat trying to reach Lampedusa was left to drift in Mediterranean
for 16 days, despite alarm being raised
* Jack Shenker <http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/jackshenker> in
Lampedusa
* <http://www.guardian.co.uk> guardian.co.uk, Monday 9 May 2011 21.30
BST
Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a
number of European and <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nato> Nato military
units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.
A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and
political <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/refugees> refugees, ran into
trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of
Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the
boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue
effort was attempted.
All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel
was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake
up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw
overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days,
we didn't know ourselves . everyone was either praying, or dying."
International maritime law compels all vessels, including military units, to
answer distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible.
Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths,
while the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has called for stricter
co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in
an effort to save human lives.
"The Mediterranean cannot become the wild west," said spokeswoman Laura
Boldrini. "Those who do not rescue people at sea cannot remain unpunished."
Her words were echoed by Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest in Rome who
runs the refugee rights organisation Habeshia, and who was one of the last
people to be in communication with the migrant boat before the battery in
its satellite phone ran out.
"There was an abdication of responsibility which led to the deaths of over
60 people, including children," he claimed. "That constitutes a crime, and
that crime cannot go unpunished just because the victims were African
migrants and not tourists on a cruise liner."
This year's political turmoil and military conflict in north
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/africa> Africa have fuelled a sharp rise in
the number of people attempting to reach Europe by sea, with up to 30,000
migrants believed to have made the journey across the Mediterranean over the
past four months. Large numbers have died en route; last month more than 800
migrants of different nationalities who left on boats from
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/libya> Libya never made it to European
shores and are presumed dead.
Underlining the dangers, on Sunday more than 400 migrants were involved in a
dramatic rescue when their boat hit rocks on Lampedusa.
The pope, meanwhile, in an address to more than 300,000 worshippers, called
on Italians to welcome immigrants fleeing to their shores.
The Guardian's investigation into the case of the boat of 72 migrants which
set sail from Tripoli on 25 March established that it carried 47 Ethiopians,
seven Nigerians, seven Eritreans, six Ghanaians and five Sudanese migrants.
Twenty were women and two were small children, one of whom was just one year
old. The boat's Ghanaian captain was aiming for the Italian island of
Lampedusa, 180 miles north-west of the Libyan capital, but after 18 hours at
sea the small vessel began running into trouble and losing fuel.
Using witness testimony from survivors and other individuals who were in
contact with the passengers during its doomed voyage, the Guardian has
pieced together what happened next. The account paints a harrowing picture
of a group of desperate migrants condemned to death by a combination of bad
luck, bureaucracy and the apparent indifference of European military forces
who had the opportunity to attempt a rescue.
The migrants used the boat's satellite phone to call Zerai in Rome, who in
turn contacted the Italian coastguard. The boat's location was narrowed down
to about 60 miles off Tripoli, and coastguard officials assured Zerai that
the alarm had been raised and all relevant authorities had been alerted to
the situation.
Soon a military helicopter marked with the word "army" appeared above the
boat. The pilots, who were wearing military uniforms, lowered bottles of
water and packets of biscuits and gestured to passengers that they should
hold their position until a rescue boat came to help. The helicopter flew
off, but no rescue boat arrived.
No country has yet admitted sending the helicopter that made contact with
the migrants. A spokesman for the Italian coastguard said: "We advised Malta
that the vessel was heading towards their search and rescue zone, and we
issued an alert telling vessels to look out for the boat, obliging them to
attempt a rescue." The Maltese authorities denied they had had any
involvement with the boat.
After several hours of waiting, it became apparent to those on board that
help was not on the way. The vessel had only 20 litres of fuel left, but the
captain told passengers that Lampedusa was close enough for him to make it
there unaided. It was a fatal mistake. By 27 March, the boat had lost its
way, run out of fuel and was drifting with the currents.
"We'd finished the oil, we'd finished the food and water, we'd finished
everything," said Kurke, a 24-year-old migrant who was fleeing ethnic
conflict in his homeland, the Oromia region of Ethiopia. "We were drifting
in the sea, and the weather was very dangerous." At some point on 29 or 30
March the boat was carried near to a Nato aircraft carrier - so close that
it would have been impossible to be missed. According to survivors, two jets
took off from the ship and flew low over the boat while the migrants stood
on deck holding the two starving babies aloft. But from that point on, no
help was forthcoming. Unable to manoeuvre any closer to the aircraft
carrier, the migrants' boat drifted away. Shorn of supplies, fuel or means
of contacting the outside world, they began succumbing one by one to thirst
and starvation.
The Guardian has made extensive inquiries to ascertain the identity of the
Nato aircraft carrier, and has concluded that it is likely to have been the
French ship Charles de Gaulle, which was operating in the Mediterranean on
those dates.
French naval authorities initially denied the carrier was in the region at
that time. After being shown news reports which indicated this was untrue, a
spokesperson declined to comment.
A spokesman for Nato, which is co-ordinating military action in Libya, said
it had not logged any distress signals from the boat and had no records of
the incident. "Nato units are fully aware of their responsibilities with
regard to the international maritime law regarding safety of life at sea,"
said an official. "Nato ships will answer all distress calls at sea and
always provide help when necessary. Saving lives is a priority for any Nato
ships."
For most of the migrants, the failure of the Nato ship to mount any rescue
attempt proved fatal. Over the next 10 days, almost everyone on board died.
"We saved one bottle of water from the helicopter for the two babies, and
kept feeding them even after their parents had passed," said Kurke, who
survived by drinking his own urine and eating two tubes of toothpaste. "But
after two days, the babies passed too, because they were so small."
On 10 April, the boat washed up on a beach near the Libyan town of Zlitan
near Misrata. Of the 72 migrants who had embarked at Tripoli, only 11 were
still alive, and one of those died almost immediately on reaching land.
Another survivor died shortly afterwards in prison, after Gaddafi's forces
arrested the migrants and detained them for four days.
LampedusaThe route of the boat
Despite the trauma of their last attempt, the migrants - who are hiding out
in the house of an Ethiopian in the Libyan capital - are willing to tackle
the Mediterranean again if it means reaching Europe and gaining asylum.
"These are people living an unimaginable existence, fleeing political,
religious and ethnic persecution," said Zerai. "We must have justice for
them, for those that died alongside them, and for the families who have lost
their loved ones."
Additional reporting by John Hooper and Tom Kington in Rome, and Kim
Willsher in Paris
Refugees from Libya reach Lampedusa
Refugees from Libya reach Lampedusa. A Nato ship failed to rescue a boat in
trouble - leaving 61 people on board to die. Photograph: Francesco
Malavolta/EPA
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