EUROPE-MIGRANTS/PALERMO-BODIES Bodies of shipwreck victims taken to port in Palermo

Record ID: 144847

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/PALERMO-BODIES Bodies of shipwreck victims taken to port in Palermo
  • Date: 6th August 2015
  • Summary: PALERMO, SICILY, ITALY (AUGUST 6, 2015) (REUTERS) SURVIVORS OF MIGRANT BOAT SHIPWRECK ON DECK OF IRISH NAVY SHIP LE NIAMH WAITING TO DISEMBARK YOUNG GIRL BEING CARRIED BY EMERGENCY WORKER FAMILY DISEMBARKING MAN WITH ARM IN SLING DISEMBARKING SHIP FAMILIES DISEMBARKING SHIP VARIOUS OF TWO MALE MIGRANTS LOOKING ON AS OTHER MIGRANTS DISEMBARK FAMILIES DISEMBARKING RESCUERS I
  • Embargoed: 21st August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA6Y638I5REHJR2G6XPUMHQQ3D
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Irish navy ship LE Niamh on Thursday (August 6) afternoon docked in the port of Sicily's Palermo carrying up to 370 survivors of Wednesday's (August 5) migrant boat disaster and 25 corpses, including several children.
    An estimated 200 migrants are feared to have drowned in the latest shipwreck.
    Vessels from the Italian and Irish navies and humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) saved about 400 people from the capsized boat thought to be carrying up to 600 on Wednesday.
    They found no more survivors after scouring the waters overnight. Italian vessels continued to search the area on Thursday, a coastguard spokesman said.
    Initial reports put about 700 passengers on the overcrowded fishing boat but interviews with survivors - mostly Syrians fleeing their country's civil war - reduced that estimate and the figure could still change.
    As hearses arrived to take the bodies away, Save the Children spokesperson Gemma Parkin said more needed to be done to prevent such tragedies.
    "It's too frequent that people are still dying in the Mediterranean, it's becoming a mass watery grave, we know that 2,000 people at least have already died this year. Twenty-five bodies have been brought to shore today in Palermo. Amongst the survivors, who will undoubtedly feel lucky but they've had to witness this horrific tragedy and then, we can see that the bodies are being brought off the ship now and they include children. Really small, tiny children have died totally unnecessarily in the Mediterranean once again," she said.
    The Mediterranean Sea is the world's most deadly border area for migrants. More than 2,000 migrants and refugees have died so far this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 deaths during the whole of last year, the International Organization for Migration said on Tuesday (August 4).
    Wednesday's tragedy occurred when the boat flipped over as the LE Niamh approached, probably because desperate passengers surged to one side as they spotted the ship.
    The Irish ship is part of the European Union Triton mission, which was expanded after up to 800 migrants drowned in a shipwreck in April.
    This summer's mass arrivals in both Italy and Greece show Europe's migrant crisis is worsening. Immigrants fleeing violence and poverty at home continue to pour in from Africa and the Middle East.
    Many of the newcomers look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, including to Britain from Calais, France.
    In April, a 20-metre (66-foot) vessel capsized as it approached a merchant ship that had come to its assistance, making it the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean for decades and a symbol of Europe's long-running migrant crisis.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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