Some 500 migrants are
missing and feared drowned after people smugglers sank a boat
carrying them last week 300 miles off the coast of Malta,
according to two Palestinian survivors of the drama.
The smugglers carried out the sinking from a second boat
after a violent clash with the migrants, according to the
account of the two as they told officials of the International
Organisation for Migrations (OIM).
The two Palestinians who fled from Gaza to Egypt in
September were plucked from the sea by the Panamanian flagged
freighter Pegasus which took them to the port of Pozzallo two
days ago.
"If this story, which the police are investigating, should
be confirmed it would be the gravest case of recent years since
it was not an accident but a mass murder perpetrated by
criminals without scruples or respect for human life," the OIM
said.
According to the two witnesses the boatload of 500 Syrians,
Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese, many of them families with
children or unaccompanied minors, left the Egyptian port of
Damietta September 6.
Last Wednesday the smugglers asked the migrants to 'jump'
onto a much smaller craft, which many of them refused to do,
leading the smugglers in another boat to ram the migrants'
vessel and sink it.
Most of the 500 fell in the sea and drowned while only a
few managed to stay afloat including the two Palestinians. One
of the two said he was one of 7 people hanging onto a life
jacket but the others all gradually succumbed to weariness and
also drowned.
After a day and a half in the water the two were picked up
by the Pegasus that was taking to Sicily 386 people plucked from
another boat trying to reach Italy.
The OIM commented that "the only way to neutralise these
criminal organisations is to start opening legal entry channels
to Europe for all people, men, women and children, who flee from
their countries in search of protection."
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