About 30 migrants were found dead by the Italian navy Monday in a packed smugglers' boat carrying hundreds of migrants between southern Sicily and North African Coast, Agence France-Presse reported, sparking frustration among critics who accused the government of failing to deal with an immigration crisis which has seen over 5,000 North Africans rescued in the last 24 hours.
The discovery was made when rescuers boarded the vessel to help evacuate after receiving a distress call Monday morning for two pregnant women, only to find 30 dead bodies stuffed into the bow-area hold of a fishing boat with almost 600 migrants on-board from North Africa. The dead migrants had been crammed into a compartment below the deck. It is not clear whether the boat was sinking when it was intercepted, correspondents said.
Initial reports suggested that the deaths appeared to have been through asphyxiation, a loss of consciousness through impairment of normal breathing, with a navy doctor claiming the migrants had "likely suffocated" in the tiny space, and "advised against removing the bodies" as it was unclear whether more poisonous gases could end up claiming other victims. However, a statement from the navy said some of the 30 migrants may have drowned rather than suffocated, though it would not confirm whether there was water in the hold or how much.
The latest tragedy highlights the dangers faced by desperate migrants making journeys aboard hopelessly overcrowded and unsafe vessels to reach the shores of Europe, BBC's Alan Johnston in Rome said. With the 2011 record of 63,000 migrants during the Arab Spring uprisings likely to be broken, Italian authorities have already confirmed the landing of 60,000 migrants in southern Italy this year.
Migrants, mostly from Africa or the Middle East, pay large sums of money to Libyan smugglers for their transportation services in unsafe fishing vessels, with the numbers rising this year due to the increasing political instability in Libya.
"Another 30 dead in a boat. Another 30 deaths on the consciences of those who defend Mare Lorum," said Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigration Northern League party, in an ironic reference to the country's "Mare Nostrum" ("Our Sea") operation to rescue boat immigrants.
The League has warned Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government that rescuing large groups of asylum seekers and immigrants to safety from their frail boats only encourages more people to set out across the southern Mediterranean for Europe. "Renzi and Alfano's shirts are soaked in blood. Stop the departures, help them in their own countries, immediately!" he said in a post on Facebook, pointing a finger not only at the center-left leader but also at Angelino Alfano, Italy's interior minister.
Italy, which has long suffered the brunt of migrants making the perilous crossing, has repeatedly appealed its European Union partners to shoulder more of the cost and burden of the rescue operations. It has confirmed that it will use its upcoming EU presidency to press its case.
