EU emergency summit to discuss plans to tackle crisis
Two men have been arrested over last weekend’s boat
disaster off the coast of Libya that caused the deaths of between 700
and 900 people.
When Italian coastguard ship the Gregoretti
arrived into Catania port at midnight on Monday with 27 survivors of the
shipwreck, two of the survivors were immediately arrested and taken
into police custody.
The two men are the boat’s captain, Tunisian Mohammed
Ali Malek (27), and ship’s mate Syrian Mahmud Bikhit. Both men have
been charged with manslaughter, shipwreck and the promotion of
clandestine immigration.
Confirmation of the arrests came from cabinet
undersecretary and infrastructure minister Giovanni Delrio who was on
the harbour front to officially acknowledge the arrival of the
survivors.
Yesterday, there were further developments when
Carlotta Sami, spokesperson for UN refugee agency UNHCR, said survivors
had spoken of a “collision” between the migrant vessel and the King Jakob, the Portuguese merchant ship that had answered the migrants’ alarm signals.
The Catania public prosecutor’s office has not ruled
out a collision. However, it believes that, even if the two vessels did
come too close together, what was critical to the capsizing of the boat
was migrants on the top deck rushing to one side when the King Jakob arrived, thus unbalancing a vessel that was already in difficulty.
Survivors’ testimony
Public prosecutor Giovanni Salvi confirmed that the two men arrested
had been identified because of the testimony of other survivors.
Investigating magistrates, who began their questioning of survivors on the Gregorettieven
before it left Malta on its way to Catania on Monday night, discovered
that several of the survivors pointed to the Tunisian and the Syrian man
as the two traffickers in charge of the ill-fated fishing vessel. In
addition, a 28th survivor, who is in hospital in Catania, independently
identified both men when shown photographs of them.
The initial enquiries would appear to confirm the
worst suspicions of the rescue service: that the small overcrowded
fishing vessel had three “levels” with 250 women and 50 children locked
into the lowest level; that an unknown number of men were locked into
level two; and that the captain and a smaller number of men were up on
deck. Only some of those who were on deck appear to have survived.
Fallout
The political fallout of the tragedy continues to be felt. Tomorrow,
an emergency EU summit in Brussels is expected to discuss plans for
tackling the crisis by strengthening the mandate and capacity of the
Mediterranean regulatory service.
The current authority, the EU’s Frontex border
control operation, Triton, has been criticised in the last week, with
critics saying it has neither the mandate nor the capacity to deal with
the increased, clandestine traffic in migrants.
The International Organisation for Migration now
estimates that about 1,750 people have drowned in the Mediterranean this
year, 30 times higher than for the same period in 2014.
European Commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud
indicated that the summit may look at some form of “military operation”
that will hit the human traffickers. Many countries, including Italy,
are likely to urge the implementation of measures that will concentrate
on the problems presented by the seemingly failed Libyan state.
Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said human
trafficking now represented as much as 10 per cent of Libyan GDP, adding
that the biggest problem posed by the crisis was not one of “resources”
but of traffickers willing to send migrants out to sea in unseaworthy
boats.
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