Migrant Survivors Speak of Boat Tragedy off the Coast of Libya
Some of the migrants who were brought to safety on the Italian
island of Lampedusa at the weekend say they witnessed a boat
carrying between 500-600 people foundering off the Libyan coast
late last week and bodies being washed ashore.
News of a growing number of boat tragedies in the Mediterranean
Sea are coming to light as desperate migrants seek to escape the
conflict in Libya.
One Somali woman told IOM staff on Lampedusa that she and her
four-month-old baby had been on the boat that sank sometime between
Thursday and Friday last week. Having lost her baby, the woman swam
to shore after which she boarded another boat heading to Italy.
"She was in a state of shock when she arrived on Lampedusa,"
said IOM's Daria Storia on the island. "She was clearly very
disorientated and agitated when we spoke to her."
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Although the migrants also spoke of seeing people swimming to
shore, it is not clear how many migrants survived apart from the
Somali woman survivor.
Migrants also told IOM that after seeing what had happened to
the first boat, many of them who had been waiting on land changed
their mind about making the sea journey to Italy. However, they
claim that Libyan soldiers and officials forced them onto a waiting
boat by firing their guns indirectly.
Although this is the first time that IOM has been told of
migrants being forced by Libyan officials to get on a boat, many
have told IOM that they did not have to pay for their passage to
Lampedusa while others say they have paid a nominal fee.
However, they say that they been stripped by officials and
soldiers of their savings and possessions, including mobile
phones.
In contrast, Tunisian migrants arriving on Lampedusa have been
paying up to 1,200 euros to make the sea journey on smugglers'
boats from Tunisia.
Since the crisis started, more than 10,371 migrants of various
nationalities have arrived on Lampedusa or the neighbouring island
of Linosa from Libya with about 1,887arriving this weekend alone on
five boats.
Meanwhile, IOM is hoping to continue its sea evacuations from
the Libyan port city of Misrata in order to help prevent more
tragedies of this kind and to lessen the suffering of migrant
workers and wounded Libyan civilians.
So far, with funding from the Australian, British, German, Irish
governments as well as the US State Department's Bureau of
Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) and the European
Commission's Humanitarian Aid and Civilian Protection Office
(ECHO), IOM has evacuated 6,263 people to Benghazi from
Misrata.
For further information, please contact:
Jean Philippe Chauzy
IOM Geneva
Tel: + 41 22 717 9361
+ 41 79 285 4366
E-mail:
"mailto:pchauzy@iom.int">pchauzy@iom.int
Jemini Pandya
Tel: + 41 22 717 9486
+ 41 79 217 3374
Email:
"mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int
or
Flavio di Giacomo
IOM Rome
Tel: + 39 347 0898996
+ 3906 44 186 207
E-mail:
"mailto:fdigiacomo@iom.int">fdigiacomo@iom.int