Five arrested over Med migrant deaths

More than 200 migrants are feared to have drowned in the latest Mediterranean boat tragedy after rescuers saved over 370 people from a capsized boat thought to be carrying 600, the Italian coast guard indicated on Thursday. Arab migrants, on the other hand, were mostly beaten with belts, police said.

Rescue vessels are continuing to search the area where the boat sank.

Irish Defense Minister Simon Coveney said the 25 bodies recovered were also on board. Those who were on top of the vessel jumped into the water and were rescued, while the migrants who were travelling in the boat’s hull were trapped inside.

Five crew members of the capsized vessel were among those disembarking, the Italian news agency ANSA said, and Palermo police were questioning the men – Libyans and Algerians – as smuggling suspects.

The five “allegedly caused the ascertained deaths of 26 people and the presumed deaths of about 200, who, according to what witnesses say, were closed inside the boat which overturned”, the police added, estimating a total of 650 migrants had been aboard the 20-metre-long fishing boat. That boat overturned when a container ship went to its rescue, the smugglers botched the steering, and migrants also rushed to one side, investigators determined. Shoulder to shoulder, feet to feet, in every nook and cranny, so much that when a rescue boat approached, people became anxious and excited and tipped the boat over so that it capsized.

Figures of the Italian interior ministry showed the country had received 82,464 migrants by sea by the second half of July, as much as 9 percent more compared to the same period a year ago. The fishing vessel experienced mechanical difficulties about 15 nautical miles from the Libyan coast when it sent a distress signal, which was picked up by the Cantinian Coast Guard.

More than 2,000 people trying to make the crossing from Libya to Europe have died this year, according to the worldwide Organisation for Migration. Italy took in 170,000 in 2014.

“All in all, there were no more than 50 people” in the water, Gil said.

It was the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean for decades and a symbol of Europe’s long-running migrant crisis. Immigrants fleeing violence and poverty at home continue to pour in from Africa and the Middle East.

President Higgins says several countries are being forced to tackle the issue on their own.