Migrant shipwreck survivors arrested as UN says 800 dead
NEWS CENTER (DİHA) - Italian police have arrested two suspected people traffickers among the survivors of the migrant boat that capsized off Libya on April 19, as the UN said 800 people were killed in the Mediterranean's worst migrant disaster.
They said they had detained a Tunisian man believed to be the captain of the vessel and a Syrian allegedly a member of the ship's crew, taken from a group of 27 haggard survivors who arrived in the Sicilian port of Catania on April 20 evening. Both face charges of people trafficking. Under-fire EU ministers meanwhile agreed on a 10-point plan to double the resources available to the current EU border surveillance mission Triton, as the UN's refugee agency and the International Organization for Migration recounted what those onboard had witnessed.
"We can say that 800 are dead," said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy on April 21, citing the survivors' accounts of the deadly crossing. Those who escaped with their lives described to officials the moment the 20-metre (70-foot) trawler carrying them capsized after a Portuguese merchant ship approached the vessel, causing a stampede.
The survivors hailed from Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh, she added, and all had been taken to nearby holding centres. One other survivor was taken to hospital in Catania, on Sicily's east coast.
(nt)
