On Tuesday,
a UNHCR team interviewed survivors of what could be one of the
worst tragedies involving refugees and migrants in the last 12
months. If confirmed, as many as 500 people may have lost their lives
when a large ship went down in the Mediterranean Sea at an unknown
location between Libya and Italy. The 41 survivors (37 men, three
women and a three-year-old child) were rescued by a merchant ship and
taken to Kalamata, in the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece on 16
April. Those rescued include 23 Somalis, 11 Ethiopians, 6 Egyptians
and a Sudanese.
The
survivors told us that they had been part of a group of between 100
and 200 people who departed last week from a locality near Tobruk in
Libya on a 30-metre-long boat.
After
sailing for several hours, the smugglers on charge of the boat
attempted to transfer the passengers to a larger ship carrying
hundreds of people in terribly overcrowded conditions. At one point
during the transfer, the larger boat capsized and sank.
The 41
survivors include people who had not yet boarded the larger vessel,
as well as some who managed to swim back to the smaller boat. They
drifted at sea possibly for three days before being spotted and
rescued on 16 April.
UNHCR
visited the survivors at the local stadium of Kalamata where they
have been temporarily housed by the local authorities while they
undergo police procedures.
UNHCR
continues to call for increased regular pathways for the admission of
refugees and asylum-seekers to Europe, including resettlement and
humanitarian admission programmes, family reunification, private
sponsorship and student and work visas for refugees. These will all
serve to reduce the demand for people smuggling and dangerous
irregular sea journeys.
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