Sicilian city cancels fireworks show out of respect for 49 dead migrants

Along with the 313 people rescued from the fishing boat and the 49 bodies, the Siem Pilot was also carrying 103 migrants from a separate rescue by a German ship, AFP reports.

Eight people allegedly involved in the illegal transportation of migrants to Italy were arrested on Tuesday by Italian police and the Financial Guard law enforcement agency in the town of Catania in Sicily, the Rai News 24 channel reported.

CNN stated that the global Organization for Migration (IOMC) said that more than 2,300 migrants have died making the journey from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe in 2015.

Deputy Mayor Marco Consoli says the fireworks display for the city’s patron saint day celebration was scrapped “out of respect for the 49” who perished inside an overcrowded smuggling boat on Saturday.

Navy officials said an initial inspection indicated the victims, at first estimated to number over 40, died from inhaling exhaust fumes. The burials will be in Catania’s cemetery.

Survivors were eventually brought to an Italian port, after being transferred to a ship working with the Frontex mission, a European initiative that aims to save the lives of migrants crossing the Mediterranean.

It was the third mass fatality in the Mediterranean this month: last week, up to 50 migrants were unaccounted for when their rubber dinghy sank, a few days after 200 were presumed dead when their boat capsized off Libya.

Migrants wait on the platform next to a full train heading to the Serbian border, at Gevgelija station in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, yesterday.