ITALY: Emergency service workers in Sicily free the bodies of 30 migrants found suffocated and drowned, after their boat is towed into port in the city of Pozzallo

Record ID: 348937

  • Title: ITALY: Emergency service workers in Sicily free the bodies of 30 migrants found suffocated and drowned, after their boat is towed into port in the city of Pozzallo
  • Date: 1st July 2014
  • Summary: POZZALLO, SICILY, ITALY (JULY 1, 2014) (REUTERS) COAST GUARD VESSEL TOWING MIGRANT BOAT CARRYING BODIES VARIOUS OF FORENSIC POLICE OFFICERS LOOKING ON FROM PIER FIREFIGHTERS IN PROTECTIVE SUITS ON PIER NAVY OFFICERS PREPARING ON PIER VARIOUS OF OFFICERS AND FIREFIGHTERS FIREFIGHTERS USING CHAINSAW, WORKING TO FREE BODIES FROM BOAT VARIOUS OF MORE FIREFIGHTERS BEING SPRAYE
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA3B2ZAR0600K3NQ2ROTIBNO48B
  • Story Text: A migrant boat with 30 corpses was towed into the Sicilian port of Pozzallo by the Italian coast guard on Tuesday (July 1).
    The bodies were found on the fishing boat packed with migrants off the coast of Sicily, Italy's navy said on Monday (June 30) after rescuing thousands of people trying to cross from North Africa over the weekend.
    The dead are thought to have either suffocated on the overcrowded fishing vessel or drowned, the navy said.
    Officers and firefighters dressed in protective suits could be seen using a chainsaw to reach the lower part of the boat where the migrants' bodies were.
    The bodies were then carried onto the pier, where they were placed in coffins and moved to hearses.
    The discovery of the corpses on Sunday (June 29) underlined the scale of the crisis in the southern Mediterranean, where hundreds have died in the past year making the journey to Europe, and tens of thousands more have been plucked from rickety boats.
    More than 5,000 people were rescued last weekend, adding to the 50,000 migrants who have reached Italy from North Africa so far this year, many fleeing war and forced conscription as well as poverty and a lack of opportunity.
    Italy has called on its European Union partners to do more to help manage the near daily arrivals, a phenomenon that has boosted voter support for the anti-immigration Northern League party in a country struggling to emerge from recession.
    The breakdown of order in Libya has made it virtually impossible to control the boats departing and, at the current rate, the figures should soon pass the record of 62,000 people who arrived by sea in 2011, the year of the "Arab Spring" turmoil across North Africa and the Middle East.
    Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said last week the EU should take responsibility for rescuing migrants by investing more in regional border control agency Frontex.
    Renzi has also urged the United Nations to intervene in Libya, where traffickers charge migrants more than $1,000 each for the risky passage.
    European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said the commission was making available to Italy 4 million euros ($5.5 million) of emergency funding and was looking at ways to contribute more.
    Mare Nostrum is Europe's biggest search and rescue mission and costs around 9 million euros a month.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register