The Maltese police are investigating last weekend’s alleged “mass murder” migrant tragedy which survivors say claimed the lives of some 500 migrants, among those close to 100 children. A number of survivors claim their vessel was rammed by human traffickers after the migrants refused their orders to transfer to another, smaller vessel.
A Home Affairs Ministry spokesperson has told this newsroom that the police are investigating the allegations surrounding what the UNHCR, the International Migration Organisation and others have dubbed a case of “mass murder” and the worst human tragedy in the Mediterranean since WWII.
The incident occurred within Malta’s Search and Rescue Area some 300 nautical miles south-east of the Maltese coast and the Armed Forces of Malta were involved in search and rescue efforts.
A Home Affairs spokesperson confirmed that the Maltese police are currently trying to verify the information garnered from interviews conducted with the few survivors of the horrific tragedy.
The police are also cooperating with Italian and Greek authorities to verify the information obtained from other interviews with the survivors, most of whom are believed to have been from Gaza. Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian and Sudanese nationals are also believed to have been on board the ill-fated migrant boat.
The ministry said the police are working in conjunction with the Egyptian authorities to verify the identity of the ship that rammed the migrant vessel.
Multiple calls for investigations
Since news of the horrific tragedy broke last weekend, several high-level calls for investigations into the alleged mass murder have been made.
Earlier this week, the Chairman of the Migration Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Thierry Mariani, called for an investigation, saying, “There needs to be an urgent, transparent and thorough investigation into this tragic incident. If it is true, as reported, that the ramming of a boat by traffickers caused these deaths, those responsible must be identified and swiftly brought to justice, and the survivors given every support.”
Some 500 migrants are feared to have died in the incident, bringing the death toll as a result of such tragedies in the Mediterranean this year to almost 3,000, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).
The vessel had set off on Saturday, 6 September from Damiette, Egypt and sank in Malta’s Search and Rescue on Friday, 15 September. Rescue operations by the Maltese, Italian and Greek authorities continued the next day but only 11 survivors of some 500 passengers were found.
Muscat hits out at traffickers
Referring to the incident on Friday, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat hit out at the “criminal gangsters” running the human trafficking networks between North Africa and Europe.
In comments to the media, he expressed his hope that the Greek Commissioner-designate for migration will bring a “new perspective” when compared to that of the outgoing Commissioner Cecilia Malmström.
Dr Muscat also acknowledged the fact that there very well could have been an untold number of other similar cases that were never even reported, for obvious reasons.
Mass murder must be investigated – UNHCR
The United Nations’ top human rights official said on Friday that the deaths of up to 500 migrants in an intentional boat-ramming incident in the Mediterranean could be an act of mass murder that must be properly investigated.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad al-Hussein said nations must treat the migrants’ deaths at the hands of human traffickers off the Maltese coast as if they were citizens killed by criminal gangs within their borders.
“The callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenceless people is a crime that must not go unpunished,” he said. “If the survivors’ accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean.”
Describing it as “a truly horrendous incident”, Zeid said: “It is the duty of states to investigate such atrocious crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice, and even more importantly to do more to prevent them from happening in the first place. All the countries in the Mediterranean must make a concerted effort to clamp down on the smugglers who are exploiting one of the most vulnerable groups on the planet and endangering their lives, virtually on a daily basis, purely for financial gain.
“The callous act of deliberately ramming a boat full of hundreds of defenceless people is a crime that must not go unpunished. If the survivors’ accounts are indeed true – and they appear all too credible – we are looking at what amounts to mass murder in the Mediterranean.”
If such a mass murder was committed on its own soil, any country would “throw the full weight of their police forces and justice systems behind an investigation”, said Zeid, a Jordanian diplomat who took over the UN role at the start of this month. “The reaction should not be any less rigorous just because the victims are foreigners and the crime took place on the high seas. Yet very few people who kill, rape or rob migrants during their journeys end up in court.”
Zeid said the smugglers are all believed to be Egyptian or Palestinian. He urged officials in Malta, as well as Greece and Italy where the survivors were taken, to share information with Egyptian authorities. He said: “You cannot transport large quantities of foreigners in buses into a major port and cram them on board a ship without the port authorities and other witnesses being aware of what is going on.”
Migrants paid USD4,000 each for passage to death
According to survivors interviewed by staff from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), there may have been 100 children under the age of 10 aboard the boat, among several hundred people crammed into a lower boat deck, while a couple hundred more were on a top deck, constantly exposed to the sun.
The IOM said the smugglers charged up to US$4,000 each to board the overcrowded, rickety boat, and then forced them to switch boats in mid-sea numerous times.
All of the witnesses told IOM staff that the smugglers were Egyptian or Palestinian.
EU’s tight border controls fuelling smugglers’ business – Amnesty International
Tight EU border controls are fuelling the business of smugglers who allegedly sank a boat in the Mediterranean last week, killing 500 migrants on board, Amnesty International said Thursday.
Nicholas Beger, who heads Amnesty’s European Institutions Office in Brussels, said “their business is in demand now more than ever due to the EU’s migration policies and practices” that focus on border controls and security measures.
“The barriers created by Europe are putting lives at risk,” he said in a statement when asked by AFP to comment on EU efforts to stop smuggling in the wake of the latest mass deaths.
“Swift investigations are needed to ensure the apprehension and prosecution of those involved in sinking the boat,” said Beger.
“However, limiting the response to law enforcement is not acknowledging nor addressing the full picture.”
Instead of tightening borders, he said, the European Union and its 28 member states should “urgently increase search and rescue capacity”.
‘They were laughing’
According to Maltese media reports, one of the migrants had his hands hacked off by traffickers while trying to cling to the boat the traffickers were on.
Reports state that the migrant tried to cling to the boat in a desperate bid to save himself from drowning. “We were treated like dogs all the way but the Egyptian smugglers were the worst,” a Palestinian survivor said. The migrant was giving the first comments to the media in the wake of last weekend’s migrants’ tragedy.
The migrant claimed that the smugglers circled and mocked the survivors of the capsized vessel after ramming the boat load of migrants.
Eleven survivors, rescued by authorities in Italy, Malta and Greece, told interviewers from the International Organisation for Migration: “After they hit our boat they waited to be sure that it had sunk completely before leaving. They were laughing”.
As many as 300 people were reportedly crammed into a lower deck of the boat, many of them children, while another 200 were on the sun-baked top deck, the IOM said.