Egypt chains up survivors from migrant deathboat

Survivors from a boat that capsized, off Egypt’s north coast are seen in a police station yesterday.

The migrant boat which was carrying about 600 people according to reports sank on Wednesday in the Mediterranean.

Migrants who survived a shipwreck off the Greek island of Crete in June said their boat had set sail from Egypt.

Egyptians wait on shore as a coast guard boat arrives carrying the bodies of migrants from a Europe-bound boat that capsized off Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, in Rosetta, Egypt, Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016.

Four crew members have been arrested, Egyptian officials said.

Judicial and security officials said four alleged smugglers had been detained, and accused of involuntary manslaughter and human trafficking.

The Egyptian military said the boat was 12 nautical miles off the coast near the town of Rosetta when it capsized on Wednesday.

Security forces said there were nearly 600 on board the ship before it sank, while a witness on board reported that only 250 were on board the migrant boat, Reuters reported. It included a number of nationalities, including Egyptian, Sudanese, Syrian, and Somalian. He also added that “70% of those coming to Italy come from sub-Saharan Africa”.

Some 1.3 million migrants reached Europe past year fleeing war and economic hardship, prompting bitter disputes among European countries over how to share responsibility.

Egypt has become a more common launching point for illegal immigration through its Mediterranean Sea shores to Europe after Libya and Turkey lost their importance for smugglers in favor of the most populous Arab country, said experts of Egyptian and Middle East affairs.

This year, over 300,000 have arrived in Europe by sea, landing mostly in Greece and Italy, according to United Nations estimates.

About 150 survivors were detained in a police station in Rosetta, a lot of them young men.

“There is no way to end this except by uprooting its causes; and this will be by reaching political agreements, not by closing borders”, he said. “The captain couldn’t move the boat; it kept swaying until it fell on its side”, Darwish said, as he lay in a blue gown on a bed at the public hospital in the coastal village of Burg Rashed. If you would like to discuss another topic, look for a relevant article. “There were many in the boat’s hold who died”.

The head of the local council, Ali Abdel-Sattar, said the loss of life would have been much heavier had a fishing vessel not been close by when the boat capsized. “This is shameful. This is shameful for our children and our young people that go to them”.

Traffickers often overload the boats, some of them scarcely seaworthy, with passengers who have paid for the crossing.

Salem said he saw two of his friends drowning in front of him but could not help them.