ITALY: As Italian divers continue their search for the bodies of migrants drowned off Lampedusa, the mayor calls for a new EU policy on asylum

Record ID: 348616

  • Title: ITALY: As Italian divers continue their search for the bodies of migrants drowned off Lampedusa, the mayor calls for a new EU policy on asylum
  • Date: 8th October 2013
  • Summary: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY (OCTOBER 8, 2013) (REUTERS) BOATS IN LAMPEDUSA PORT COASTGUARD OFFICIALS ON BOAT IN PORT DIVER PREPARING EQUIPMENT IN RAIN BOATS PREPARING TO LEAVE FOR SEARCH VARIOUS OF VEHICLES FOR SPECIAL DIVING UNITS DIVER CARRYING GEAR VARIOUS OF DIVERS PREPARING TO GO OUT ON BOATS / DIVER WALKING TOWARDS BOAT WITH OXYGEN TANK ON BANK LAMPEDUSA MAYOR GIUSI NICOLIN
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: International Relations,Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
  • Reuters ID: LVA6PNO64T3JPW2F9BILTWR1YV6B
  • Story Text: Bad weather on Tuesday (October 8) did not stop Italian search teams from continuing their gruesome work of recovering the bodies of migrants drowned in a shipwreck last week.
    Despite rain and a drop in temperature, divers left the port of Lampedusa in the morning to try and bring more bodies to the surface from a wreck 40 metres under water.
    The boat, carrying around 500 mainly Eritrean and Somali migrants, capsized and sank on Thursday (October 3), throwing hundreds into the water. Only 155 survivors were rescued and more than 300 are feared dead.
    It was one of the worst single incidents involving economic migrants and refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa in search of a new life in Europe.
    European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso is due to visit Lampedusa along with Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta on Wednesday (October 9) to discuss joint action on the refugee crisis following calls from Italian politicians for more help from the European Union.
    Lampedusa mayor Giusi Nicolini said it was time for the EU to change its asylum policies.

    "We will ask Barroso for measures that will prevent these journeys of hope. It is just not possible that Europe continues to accept that these people enter Europe in this horrendous fashion. And so we will ask him for new policies on asylum."
    Lampedusa, a tiny island halfway between Sicily and Tunisia, has become one of the main entry points for clandestine migrants from Africa into southern Europe, with tens of thousands arriving in unsafe and overcrowded boats over recent years.
    Thousands have died attempting the crossing, and the decades-long problem has been exacerbated this year by thousands of refugees fleeing civil war in Syria.
    For now, the government has proposed setting up "humanitarian corridors" to identify more quickly the vessels making dangerous sea passage so that they can be rescued.
    But a breakdown in security across much of Libya, the point of departure for the doomed boat, has made it difficult for European states to set up a working system of controls with authorities in the vast desert country.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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