Switzerland - Investigations are proceeding in three countries following the loss of up to 500 migrants who sailed to Europe from the port of Damietta, Egypt, earlier this month.

The International Organization for Migration is assisting Italy, Greece and Malta in separate investigations into a September incident that eyewitnesses say amounted to the deliberate scuttling of a vessel carrying at least 300 migrants from Egypt, Syria, Sudan and Palestine. Nearly two weeks later only 11 survivors have been reported.

With this month’s deaths at sea, IOM’s Missing Migrants Project has raised its 2014 total of fatalities to 3072 on the Mediterranean Sea, more than the 700 lost there in all of 2013. Besides the Malta shipwreck—the date of which remains unknown—at least four more fatal mishaps added to this month’s death toll.

IOM Chief of Mission-designate in Italy, Federico Soda, reported Sicily’s Squadra Mobile Ragusa has opened one investigation, and that the prosecutor directing the probe has moved two survivors of the shipwreck—both Palestinians from Gaza—to an undisclosed location for their safety.

In Greece, IOM staffer Daniel Esdras said an investigation is underway in Crete directed by the Hellenic Coastguard in collaboration with the Hellenic Police. Authorities there say they are using testimony from six surviving migrants as well as information gleaned from relatives searching for lost passengers to gather evidence against those who promoted the deadly voyage to migrants in the Middle East and Africa.

“They have collected some phone numbers [related to the smuggling operation], contacts of the smugglers in Gaza,” and the so-called “travel office” where migrants paid up to $4,000 a piece to book passage on the voyage, Esdras said.

In Malta, local media report the Home Affairs Ministry said the voyage is under investigation by Malta’s police. IOM’s Malta staffer, Martine Cassar, said reports also have surfaced of as many as 50 bodies being found near the scene of the shipwreck, although so far officials have not confirmed how many bodies of dead victims were recovered.

The search for victims’ remains and the anguish of relatives who believe their family members were lost on the voyage has led to a steady stream of calls to IOM offices throughout the region, as well as IOM’s headquarters in Geneva. Emails and text messages with photos attached show mainly middle class Egyptians, Palestinians and Syrians who were undertaking the dangerous trip. Some images appear to have been shot in Europe, where several victims were said to have studied or visited as tourists in the past.

Families speak of husbands, brothers and sons unable to find jobs in the damaged economies of Gaza and Egypt, the terror of violence in Syria and Sudan, and of prejudice against job-seekers in countries where well-educated migrants had been living.

An Egyptian mother of three children, who fears her husband is among the dead, told IOM this week that her Syria-born husband tried for two years to find work in Cairo.

“My husband fled to escape the violence and destruction in Syria, was unable to find a job in Egypt,” this woman said, telling IOM that neighbours in Cairo heard about the voyage being arranged in Damietta. “They told us that it’s a safe trip to Europe and will arrive within several days,” she said.

Others have expressed relief to learn that their loved ones missed that voyage, although in some cases they expressed new fears that they may be lost on another boat, still unreported. One former resident of Gaza, now living in the United Arab Emirates, told IOM this week that his sister and her family called from Egypt on September 9, indicating they would leave for Italy from the Port of Alexandria the following morning. It’s now been almost two weeks since that call, this man said, and no one from the family has heard from the migrants since that time.

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Spokespersons :

Christiane Berthiaume in Geneva – Tel: 41 22 717 9361 -Mobile: 41 79 285 4366, Email: cberthiaume@iom.int
Joel Millman in Geneva - Tel: 41 22 717 9486 – Mobile: 41 79 103 87 20, Email: jmillman@iom.int
Daniel Esdras in Greece:  Tel: 30 2 10/99.12.174 – Email: desdras@iom.int
Martine Cassar in Malta: Tel: +356 21 23 10 13; +356 21 22 51 68 - Email: mcassar@iom.int
Flavio di Giacomo in Italy - Tel: 39 06 44 186 207- Mobile 39 347 089 8996 – Email: fdigiacomo@iom.int
Leonard Doyle in Geneva - Tel: 41 22 717 9589 – Mobile: 41 79 285 71 23, Email: ldoyle@iom.int