Italy was shaken over the weekend by the deaths of six young Egyptians who drowned trying to swim 20m from a wooden fishing boat to the shore, and whose bodies were laid out in bags beside sun umbrellas on a popular Sicilian beach.
The prosecutor of Catania, Sicily's second city, opened an investigation after the boat, which had been carrying more than 100 migrants from Egypt and Syria, ran aground on a sandbar near the Lido Verde resort.
Roberto D’Arrigo, a spokesman for the Catania coastguard, said some of the passengers had jumped into the water to try to swim to safety. Among the 98 survivors were about 50 minors, many of them small children.
It was suspected the six men who died, aged between 17 and 27 years old, may not have known how to swim. The Ansa news agency reported that the youngest was to have turned 18 this month.
According to the UN, some 8,400 migrants and asylum-seekers landed on the coasts of Italy and Malta in the first six months of this year, many of them from Egypt and Syria and countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is rare, however, for boats to approach populated shorelines near cities, and investigators were reported as saying the vessel may have taken a wrong turn.
Police have arrested two Egyptians, aged 16 and 17, on suspicion of assisting illegal immigration, but are said to fear the smugglers may have managed to flee the boat.
Manslaughter charges
The prosecutor of Catania, Giovanni Salvi, is looking into possible charges of multiple manslaughter in relation to the disaster. He told the Catholic newspaper L'Avvenire the fishing boat might have been towed most of the way by a larger ship and said he suspected links to an "organised network".
Other investigations had already indicated that local crime organisations were involved in the people smuggling, he said.
D’Arrigo said coastguards had launched an emergency rescue attempt after receiving an alert via the police from the Lido Verde’s owner, who had heard cries coming from the beach. The beach was closed after the deaths, and Catania’s city council called a day of mourning for Wednesday, when the funerals may be held.
– (Guardian service)