I wasn’t
aware of the migrant boat disaster in the Mediterranean until Dr. Fitzgerald
mentioned it last class, but it certainly stuck with me. The boat took off from
Eritrea and capsized off of Lampedusa, a Sicilian island about 500 meters from
the coast. It is suspected that more than 300 people deceased out of the
approximate 500 on the boat. It is believed that the captain lit a blanket on
fire to signal that the boat needed help for a stalled engine. Rather than
create this signal, he caused an explosion, which, along with the ensuing
chaos, brought down the boat. The boat capsized at 4 A.M., leaving many
inexperienced swimmers with no chance. A horrifying quote from survivor, Germani
Nagassi, reads, “For five hours we were floating, using the dead bodies of our
companions. There is nothing worse than this. There were many children. There
was a mother with her four children, a mother with an infant, all lost at sea.
My mind is scarred and in a terrible condition.”
Unfortunately,
this is by no means the first migrant boat tragedy in the Mediterranean. In the
past year, around 1500 migrants have deceased in the Mediterraean, and some
20,000 in total over the past 20 years, according to the International Organization
for Migration.
This is a horrible tragedy. The article says that they were less than a mile away from the end point when the boat caught on fire and people were floating in the sea for help for 5 hours before anyone could arrive and help them out. How could the officials or coast guards not see such an accident in the era of such high technology. this seems to me like they just neglected those immigrants.
ReplyDelete