Arubber
boat packed with 147 migrants sank in the Mediterranean and all but one of its
passengers drowned, the sole survivor - a 16-year-old Gambian boy - told
rescuers, the International Migration Organization (IOM) said on Wednesday.
A
Spanish frigate, the Canarias, found the boy hanging onto a piece of debris in
the sea on Tuesday. He was transferred to an Italian Coast Guard ship and
brought to the Sicilian island of Lampedusa early on Wednesday.
“He
was very tired when they found him. He’s resting now, so we’ll have more
details later,” said IOM spokesman Flavio Di Giacomo in Rome, after speaking to
staff in Lampedusa.
“The
boy said they left Sabratha, Libya, a couple of days ago on a rubber boat with
147 sub-Saharan Africans on board, including five children and some pregnant
women,” Di Giacomo said.
In
the past two days, rescuers have picked up more than 1,100 migrants at sea, and
recovered one body, Italy’s Coast Guard said. The Coast Guard did not comment
on the latest shipwreck.
So
far this year, nearly 600 migrants have died trying to reach Italy from North
Africa, IOM estimates, after some 4,600 deaths last year. Migrant arrivals to
Italy are up more than 50 percent this year on the same period of last year.
Early
on Wednesday, the Golfo Azzurro, a humanitarian vessel, rescued about 400
migrants - mainly from Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Gambia and Bangladesh -
including 16 women and two children.
They
were found drifting in a wooden boat without power about 16 kilometers (10
miles) off the coast of Sabratha, the most frequently used departure point
currently used by people smugglers in Libya, and will now be transported to
Sicily.
“The
migrants kissed and hugged their rescuers and sang songs” after they were
brought to safety, said Reuters photographer Yannis Behrakis, who is onboard
the Golfo Azzurro.
“My
brother back home convinced me to make the trip,” said Gambian Kalifa Kujabi,
17, after the rescue. He said he played for Gambia’s soccer academy and paid
$600 for the passage. “My brother said that I can only have a future as a
soccer player in Europe.”
Italy’s
parliament on Wednesday approved a law aimed at protecting unaccompanied minors
in a measure welcomed by humanitarian groups.
Also
on Wednesday, the Senate voted to pass a decree that foresees new detention
centers for migrants who are to be deported, cutting the length of the appeals
process for those whose asylum requests have been rejected. The decree now goes
before the lower house.
Source:
Reuters
