ITALY: Coffins carrying the bodies of migrants who died in a shipwreck off Lampedusa are moved to Sicily for burial.

Record ID: 348627

  • Title: ITALY: Coffins carrying the bodies of migrants who died in a shipwreck off Lampedusa are moved to Sicily for burial.
  • Date: 14th October 2013
  • Summary: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY (OCTOBER 14, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF TWO WOMEN WEEPING OVER COFFINS AND BEING COMFORTED BY MEN NAVAL PERSONNEL ON FRIGATE LIBRA/SHIP SOUNDING HORN AND STARTS SAILING NAVAL OFFICER WALKING PAST COFFINS ON DECK MAN ON DOCKSIDE CRYING INTO HANDKERCHIEF IN FRONT OF COFFINS ON SHIP COFFINS BEING WINCHED FROM QUAYSIDE ONTO ITALIAN MILITARY SHIP WORKERS MOVING
  • Embargoed: 29th October 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Disasters,Politics,People
  • Reuters ID: LVA4A7BB0XAKI4VLQUKVW87TKM7G
  • Story Text: Relatives mourned their dead in Lampedusa on Monday (October 14) as coffins carrying bodies of migrants from a shipwreck on October 3 were loaded onto Italian naval ships to be transported to Sicily.
    More than 350 people, mostly Eritrean, died when their boat capsized and sank off the coast of the southern island of Lampedusa, throwing hundreds into the water.
    As the coffins were being loaded on Monday, a short ceremony was held on the Lampedusa dockside for coffin number 319, a white coffin containing the body of a small child.
    In Sicily coffins were placed in a cemetery in Agrigento and it is expected that a memorial mass for all the victims will be announced in the next few days.
    The shipwreck has not deterred other migrants making their way from north Africa towards Lampedusa, a a stepping stone for those seeking a better life in Europe for two decades.
    On Monday a migrant boat carrying 137 people reached Italy and more than 200 migrants arrived in ports in eastern Sicily after being rescued on Sunday (October 13) by an Italian merchant ship and by a coastguard cutter. Last Friday (October 11), at least 34 more migrants drowned when their boat capsized, though the true figure may be above 200.
    The Syrian civil war and unrest in Egypt and other Arab and African countries are fuelling the flow of refugees, many of whom have to pass through an increasingly unstable Libya.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2013. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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