EU under pressure as full horror of migrant disaster emerges

European Union leaders head into a summit on the Mediterranean migrant crisis on Thursday under pressure to act after survivors laid bare the full horror of last weekend’s catastrophic shipwreck. 

Allegations of callous disregard for African, Asian and Arab lives are pushing Europe’s bosses to come up with a concrete response to a disaster in which 800 people are feared to have died off Libya. The vast majority of those on board were locked in the hold or the middle deck of the 20-metre (66-foot) boat when it capsized in the early hours of Sunday following a collision with a Portuguese cargo ship responding to its distress signal. 

Only 28 survivors and 24 bodies were recovered and the lucky few say there were hundreds on board, spread over three levels. “Those who had the least money were stuffed into the hold at the bottom, and locked inside,” according to a Bangladeshi teenager identified as Abdirizzak. 

When the first collision happened in pitch darkness, scenes of pure terror ensued, he told Italy’s Corriere della Sera. “Everyone was screaming, pushing, punching, elbowing, terrified. From below we could hear those who were locked in shouting ‘Help, Help!’ I don’t know how but somehow we managed to swim outside just in time before the boat went down,” he said. Another Bangladeshi survivor said the migrant boat had hit the Portuguese container ship three times. “People panicked, they all ran to the other side of the deck. That’s what tipped us over,” 17-year-old Riajul was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph. 

“Most of the other migrants were African and they didn’t know how to swim. I did and that’s why I survived. Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania said they had asked a judge to charge the boat’s Tunisian captain with illegal confinement as well as culpable homicide, causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration. The skipper, Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, is alleged to have been drinking and smoking hashish while steering the boat. Crew member and Syrian national Mahmud Bikhit, 25, is also in custody. A judge has until Friday to make a decision on formal charges. 

The exact number and breakdown of the victims may never be known as the wreck sank in one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean.