ROME — Having floated for at least two days in the choppy Mediterranean, a rickety trawler overstuffed with African migrants fleeing war and poverty was nearing a Sicilian island, not even a quarter-mile away. But it was still dark, and no one had yet spotted them. So to signal their position, someone set a match to a blanket.
But rather than sending a signal, the fire brought tragedy, when flames from the burning blanket ignited gasoline. Nearly 500 people are estimated to have been on board, and the blaze created a panic that capsized the boat. So close to reaching land, the migrants were tossed into the sea. Many could not swim. Pregnant women and children were among the drowned.
The accident, which occurred before dawn Thursday off the island of Lampedusa, is one of the worst in recent memory in the Mediterranean. At least 94 people were reported dead, with 250 still missing. Late Thursday afternoon, officials said more bodies had been discovered in the sunken ship. At least 150 people survived, and Italy’s coast guard was continuing to search for more survivors.
The grisly deaths again underscored the dangerous, desperate efforts by many migrants from Africa and the Middle East to reach Europe by sea, while also renewing criticism of European immigration policy.
Why would they be fleeing a liberated Middle East and Africa?
Immigration is a politically volatile issue in Europe, so much so that Greece recently completed a nearly eight-mile fence blocking its border with Turkey, an attempt to shut down a major land migration route.
Fences appear to be okay for Greece and Israel, but not for AmeriKa.
See: Turkish Coup Plots
Also resting at the bottom.
But some experts say that making it harder to slip into Europe by land has only pushed many migrants to try the more perilous route by sea. With conflicts raging in the Middle East and Africa, the number of asylum seekers and migrants arriving by boat in Spain and Italy has sharply risen this year. According to statistics released by the United Nations, more than 30,000 migrants reached Italy during the first nine months of this year.
Lampedusa, an Italian island just 70 miles from northern Africa, has become a gateway to Europe for migrants. In some seasons, boats filled with migrants and asylum seekers arrive almost daily. Pope Francis, who visited the island in July to draw attention to the plight of migrants, expressed sadness and outrage over Thursday’s fatal accident.
“The word disgrace comes to me,” the pope said, calling for prayers on behalf of the dead and their families. “Let us unite our efforts so that similar tragedies do not happen again. Only a decided collaboration among all can help to stop them.”
See: Pope Gives in to Gays
For Italy, the flow of migrants across the Mediterranean has become an enormous operational and humanitarian challenge.
What a great world the globalists have constructed for us all, huh?
Italian coast guard boats are dispatched almost daily on dangerous rescue missions. Migrants assume huge risks to reach Europe and pay thousands of dollars to smugglers and middlemen, often in Turkey, Egypt, and Libya. The smugglers load people onto a large boat for a trip into Italian waters. There, the migrants are usually transferred to smaller boats, some barely seaworthy, and left to float in the current. Then the smugglers flee back to Africa.
Related(?): The Point to Silly Panama Story
It was unclear if the migrants in Thursday’s accident were delivered by smugglers and then transferred to a smaller boat, or if they made the entire journey from Libya in the same trawler. It did seem clear, though, that they were completely unprepared.
“Normally, these boats have a satellite phone, or someone on board will call a relative in Italy who alerts the authorities,” said Veronica Lentini, who works with the International Organization for Migration in Lampedusa and spoke with several survivors. “But in this case, no one advised anyone.”
Survivors told Lentini that their ship had traveled from Libya and was within close distance to a tiny contiguous sister island of Lampedusa when the engine broke down. Soon, the ship began to take on water, and the fire was started to attract attention. But gas from the broken engine was ignited by the flames, and terrified passengers raced away from the explosion, to one side of the vessel. It capsized.
Lillian Pizzi, a psychologist working with migrant families on Lampedusa, said the survivors were in a state of shock.
“They’re exhausted, and they’re finding it difficult to explain exactly what happened,” said Pizzi, who works for Terre des Hommes, a nonprofit group. “It is something that happens all too often. It has to be read politically. This is not an accident at sea. It is something else.”
In Rome, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that the vessel had departed from Misurata, Libya, and that most of the passengers were from Eritrea and Somalia. No one onboard had a cellphone, and he confirmed that gasoline was to blame for the rapid spread of the fire.
“It happened close to shore,” Alfano said. “Had they been able to swim, they would have been safe.”
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I know there is more about the migrant boats if you scroll my Italy label. I simply can't afford to take the time right now to provide links. Sorry.
Related:
"Team details plan to salvage cruise ship" by Frances D’Emilio | Associated Press, September 13, 2013
ROME — An international team of engineers and other experts has no ‘‘Plan B’’ if an attempt to right the hulking wreck of the grounded Costa Concordia goes wrong and the cruise liner splits apart or falls back on its side near an Italian island.
The team is attempting an unprecedented engineering bet to remove the luxury liner from just outside the harbor of Giglio island, where it has been on its side after smashing into a jagged reef. Assuming seas are calm, the ship will be slowly pulled to an upright position in an hours-long operation so it can be towed to a mainland port and turned into scrap.
The possibility that the Mediterranean cruise liner might fall apart is a ‘‘remote event,’’ insisted Franco Gabrielli, head of Italy’s Civil Protection agency, at a briefing Thursday to lay out logistics. ‘‘If the ship doesn’t turn’’ back upright, ‘‘there is no other way’’ to try it again.
Thirty-two people died when the Concordia crashed on the evening of Jan. 13, 2012, as the captain steered the vessel close to Giglio’s rocky coastline. The reef sliced a 230-foot long gash into a side of the hull, seawater rushed in, and the Concordia began to list so quickly that many lifeboats couldn’t be lowered to help save all the 4,200 passengers and crew.
A 500-member salvage team from 24 nations will conduct the operation to move the ship, known in nautical terms as parbuckling, before the autumn storm season, when winds and powerful waves risk battering it to the point that it won’t hold together.
Dozens of crank-like pulleys will start slowly rotating the ship upright at a rate of about 3 yards per hour. Steel chains weighing 17,000 tons have been looped under the vessel to help pull it upright. Tanks filled with water on the exposed side will also help rotate it upward.
Parbuckling has never been applied to a large cruise liner.
Bodies of two of the 32 victims, an Italian passenger and a Filipino crew member, were never found.
Once the ship is set upright and stabilized, its interior will be searched again in hopes of finding their remains, authorities said.
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Also see:
Italy OK’s effort to remove liner from island reef
Stricken liner righted, off reefs in Italy
Concordia success boosts pride for shamed Italy
Captain of wrecked ship blames helmsman in Italy case
Remains found near cruise wreck off Italian coast
Sunday Globe Special: Costa Concordia Case in Court
That should keep you afloat.
"Bus falls into Italy ravine, killing 37; 11 are injured on vehicle that was full of pilgrims" Associated Press, July 29, 2013
ROME — At least 37 people were killed Sunday when a tour bus filled with Italian pilgrims drove off a highway into a ravine in southern Italy after striking several cars that had slowed in heavy traffic, officials said....
Officials said the bus driver, for reasons not yet determined, appeared to have lost control of his vehicle while crossing a viaduct. State radio quoted Avellino police as saying the driver was among the dead....
Italian news reports said the bus was almost filled as it returned from a religious excursion in the Puglia region in southeastern Italy. The area is popular with Catholic faithful....
I guess God called them home.
The A16 highway is particularly treacherous because it uses a series of viaducts to traverse mountainous terrain.
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"Vehicle ban begins near Colosseum
ROME — To protect its ancient glories from modern perils, Rome is banning cars and motor scooters from the boulevard that slices through the city’s ancient forums toward the Colosseum. Police started enforcing the restrictions at dawn Saturday, diverting private cars and motor scooters to side streets, so they will no longer clog the Via dei Fori Imperiali. Only buses, taxis, bicycles, and pedestrians will be allowed on the boulevard, built in the 1930s by Benito Mussolini so parades passed reminders of the Roman empire (AP)."
Which was sunk a ling time ago.
