Prosecutors Blame Captain for Causing Deadly Shipwreck in Mediterranean

By James Mackenzie

CATANIA, Italy, April 21 (Reuters) – Prosecutors blamed the Tunisian captain of a fishing boat for inflicting the deaths of tons of of migrants locked beneath decks when his vessel capsized within the Mediterranean, within the weekend shipwreck that has shocked Europe.

Prosecutors stated on Tuesday that Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, arrested below suspicion of a number of murder, had steered his severely overloaded boat right into a collision with a service provider ship that was coming to its rescue.

Only 28 survivors have been delivered to Italy from the tons of of primarily African and Bangladeshi migrants on board. Police have quoted the survivors giving loss of life tolls that vary from 400 to 950 in what seems to have been the worst catastrophe ever amongst migrants fleeing throughout the Mediterranean to Europe.

So few survived as a result of many of the migrants on board, together with ladies and kids, had been locked within the maintain and decrease decks of the three-deck fishing boat, stated Catania chief prosecutor Giovanni Salvi.

That additionally made it unimaginable to this point to succeed in the our bodies and confirm the toll.

The captain has been arrested on suspicion of a number of murder and people-smuggling, and he and his 25-year-old Syrian first mate, Mahmud Bikhit, are additionally suspected of inflicting a shipwreck. It was not instantly attainable to succeed in legal professionals representing them for remark.

Under Italian legislation, prosecutors define the costs they consider a defendant ought to face earlier than the defendant is formally charged by a decide.

Both males are in police custody, whereas investigations proceed, the prosecutors’ workplace stated.

The catastrophe comes after weeks of a dramatic rise in deaths amongst migrants packed into rickety vessels to cross the Mediterranean. Nearly 1,800 have drowned to this point this 12 months, in comparison with fewer than 100 deaths by the top of April final 12 months, a interval when the same quantity tried the crossing.

That has put new strain for motion on European leaders who restricted funding for naval operations on the argument that rescuing migrants lures extra to cross. The coverage, nonetheless backed by some EU international locations, seems to have made the voyage far deadlier with out decreasing the numbers making an attempt it.

The variety of migrants making an attempt the damaging journey normally peaks within the late spring and summer season months, including to the urgency.

The EU proposed on Monday doubling the dimensions of its small naval mission within the space, which changed a far bigger Italian operation cancelled final 12 months. It has summoned leaders of its international locations to an emergency summit on Thursday.

The Italian coast guard stated 638 migrants had been rescued from rubber dinghies on Monday in six separate operations and service provider ships and coast guard patrol boats had been aiding a fishing boat carrying migrants some 80 miles off the south jap coast of Calabria, in mainland Italy.

Lawlessness in Libya, the place many of the migrant boats originate, has made it tough to stop traffickers from packing 1000’s of individuals fleeing poverty or struggle into unsafe fishing boats and rubber dinghies.

The prosecutors’ workplace stated it was attainable that investigators would attempt to recuperate the wreck of the vessel, which sank round 70 nautical miles off the Libyan coast at round midnight between Saturday and Sunday.

According to the prosecutors, the fishing boat was so closely overloaded that it couldn’t be manoeuvred correctly. The captain crashed it into the King Jacob, a Portuguese service provider vessel that had approached to present support.

As round 100 migrants on deck rushed to at least one aspect, the boat capsized and sank.

The Catania prosecutors workplace stated no blame was hooked up to the service provider ship. (Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Peter Graff)