Posted on 05/27/2007 9:40:59 PM PDT by Lorianne
Twenty-seven migrants spent a day at sea holding on to buoys around a giant tuna net as the Maltese and Libyan governments argued over who should save them from drowning.
They were picked up eventually by an Italian patrol vessel. The men – Africans of various nationalities – had paid for a passage from Libya to Europe in an open boat that foundered on Friday night.
Soon after their boat went down they were spotted by the Maltese tug Boudafel, which was towing a huge tuna-breeding plant towards Spain.
The men said that the tug threw them a line and began towing them, ahead of the plant. When their boat sank the men grabbed the steel cable connecting the breeder to the tug and worked their way on to buoys that formed a floating circle, about 60 yards across, supporting the system of nets below the surface.
Related Links Farewell for African agenda Appeal for £10m to save refugees from rains The tug was ordered by her owners not to take the men on board because that would have interrupted her voyage.
The men were transferred after 24 hours to the Italian naval vessel Orione, which was in the area searching for another boatload of migrants that had become known as the “phantom boat”.
She was an open boat, crammed with 53 men, women and children, sighted and photographed from the air last Monday about 90 miles (145km) south of Malta. Her engine had stopped and it looked as if she was in difficulty, but contact was lost.
At first it was thought that the tuna buoy survivors had been on that boat, but it became clear that there was no connection. The authorities now fear that the occupants of the “phantom boat” are dead.
The 27 migrants told Italian authorities that their engine broke down several days after leaving Libya on Sunday last week.
The decision not to take the survivors on board the tug may have been prompted by the experience of the Spanish trawler Francisco Catalina. She rescued 51 “illegals” and then stood off Malta for a week because the Valletta authorities refused her permission to enter harbour. Her captain was told at the weekend that he could not land them there.
Malta, which in recent weeks has had to deal with several illegal landings, contacted the Libyan Government about the shipwrecked immigrants but, after many hours, diplomatic negotiations broke down and Valletta called on other European states to intervene.
The men were located by Italian navy reconnaissance aircraft about 65 miles north of Tripoli and 100 miles southeast of the Italian island of Lampedusa. According to a navy spokesman, the 1,580-tonne Orione sent ahead her helicopter to drop lifejackets and arrived on the scene in the early evening to take the men on board.
They landed yesterday at Lampedusa, where there is a permanent detention centre to cope with the flow of illegal migrants who land either directly on the island or are picked up by Italian patrol vessels.
Lampedusa, which is only 80 miles from the African coast, is the southernmost fragment of the European Union. Laura Boldrini, a spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said: “This episode shows that, to save lives at sea, a joint effort, and an assumption of responsibility, is needed on the part of all the Mediterranean nations.”
Since the start of the year, 3,149 people have arrived illegally on the Italian coast, a significant drop from last year. However, there has been an increase in recent weeks in the number of migrants attempting to cross the Mediterranean, and authorities say that the warm weather and calm seas have played a role.
Last year more than 31,000 people, mainly from Africa, landed illegally on the Canary Islands, seen as an outpost for entry into the European Union. That was six times the number in 2005. Many others died on the journey.
But tighter maritime surveillance and bad weather conditions have led to a sharp drop in arrivals this year in the Spanish archipelago.
Perilous waters
August 2006 About 50 people die when a 10m (33ft) boat carrying 120 people capsizes 15km (10 miles) from the island of Lampedusa
July 2006 Fourteen malnourished immigrants rescued from a ship spotted near the island report that 13 companions died of starvation during the crossing from North Africa
September 2005 Eleven bodies are washed up on Sicilian beaches after the crew of the trawler smuggling them to Italy tells them to jump overboard when the vessel runs aground
October 2003 Italian sailors find 70 corpses and 15 emaciated survivors, mostly Somalis, on a broken-down boat drifting near Lampedusa
June 2003 200 illegal immigrants are presumed drowned, and only 41 rescued after their boat capsizes close to the Tunisian coast
Source: Times archives
Very lucky folks.
CAMP OF THE SAINTS by Raispail predicted the invasion of third worlders by boats years ago with the resulting destruction of Europe - now his predictions are coming true.
And yet here in America, we have leftist ingrates complaining about how awful America is when people are desparate enough to risk death in the open ocean for freedom and a better life.
I know an American ship would have taken these people on board rather than left them in the ocean as shark food for 24 hours. That’s unforgivable.
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