One survivor: 54 die at sea attempting the voyage to Italy from Libya
This news story is playing on Italian media now, but no word in the Maltese press except for timesofmalta.com just now. It doesn’t concern us, I suppose. If they drowned, it’s not news. If they head our way alive, it is.
UNHCR Press Releases, today
It is with great sadness that UNHCR received the news that 54 people perished attempting the sea journey from Libya to Italy. According to the sole survivor, an Eritrean man, 55 people boarded the boat in Libya in late June. He reported that all the other passengers died of dehydration during a 15 day ordeal.
“This is a tragedy,” said T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees. “Fifty four people have lost their lives.”
Fishermen found the survivor off the Tunisian coast last night. They alerted the Tunisian Coast Guard who rescued the man. He was immediately taken to Zarzis hospital where he is being treated for dehydration and exposure.
UNHCR staff interviewed the survivor. He said that the boat left from Tripoli in Libya in late June and a day later the boat reached the Italian coast, but high winds forced the boat back to sea. Within a few days the inflatable boat was punctured and air started to leak out.
According to the survivor, there was no water on board and people started to die of dehydration within days. Many drank sea water, including the man who survived. He was rescued floating on the remains of the boat and a jerry can. According to the survivor over half of the deceased were from Eritrea, including three of his relatives.
“I call upon all vessels at sea to be on heightened alert for migrants and refugees needing rescue in the Mediterranean,” said Aleinikoff. “The Mediterranean is one of the busiest seaways in the world and it is imperative that the time honoured tradition of rescue at sea be upheld.”
So far in 2012, over 1,300 people have arrived by boat from Libya in Italy. A boat, reportedly carrying 50 Eritreans and Somalis, is currently at sea. They refused to be rescued by Maltese military forces yesterday.
Over 1,000 people on 14 boats have arrived in Malta from Libya so far this year. Two other boats were intercepted by Maltese authorities, but the majority elected not to be rescued and continued to Italy.
UNHCR Italy estimates that so far this year some 170 people have been declared dead or lost at sea attempting to make the journey from Libya to Europe.
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So sad, what a tragedy and how cruel to leave this way on the journey of hope.
Even more sad is knowing that thousands of my co-nationals would rather have people die like this than giving them a helping hand.
alex start by giving a helping hand to the hundreds of poor MALTESE co-nationals who dont have the money power you have, and start by giving them their basic needs. You see talk is cheap but charity starts from home and not from foreigners.
I’d rather give a helping hand to people who never had an opportunity to improve their situation.
Maltese who still do not have basic needs had many chances and threw them away. People risking their life to live in peace are desperate and are the ones who truly need help.
Dear Mustafa’, yes, whenever there is a Maltese co-national drowning, we should give him or her a helping hand as well.
And no, dear Mustafa, charity does not necessarily have to begin at home.
Faced with the choice of either alleviating the hardships of a Maltese national, or saving a drowning foreigner, only a bigoted ignorant callous racist son of a bitch would do the former.
So much for towing them out to sea, “when the weather is fair”.
Someone should ask Jeffrey what he thinks of this.
Or Liitle Joey?
Isn’t the Mediterranean crowded in summer? I find it hard to believe that nobody saw them and called for help.
[Daphne – No, it isn’t. It is a vast and terrible space. It looks small only on maps.]
Crowded ?
Think again.
It is one of the more turbulent seas despite its apparent docility. Have a look at “The Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean” by John Norwich.
I read the sad news on the Times. 54 lives. Mah! And the three comments I saw on the online version are already turning it into a circus. The Times should block these comments on articles such as these.
Natural selection at its best, the world is overpopulated, this is one way of reducing the population.
They knew the risk they were taking, they paid human traffickers to get them across the Mediterranean. Life in North Africa would have been better than a possible death in the sea.
[Daphne – I can’t believe you said that.]
What you say is simplistic and callous.
We are talking about human lives.
Human lives.
The lives of human beings like you and me.
No Anthony, here’s where you go wrong. For the likes of Paul Bonnici, those are not human beings like you and me. They are “is-suwed”.
With ‘natural selection at its best’, sub-human species such as Paul Bonnici would not be around.
He is, as someone quoted in another context, one man who loves God with all his soul, and hates black people with all his heart.
Most probably Paul Bonnici is three shades away from being an African himself. Oh, the irony of it all.
You are right Paul.
Also if the Higher Ups of the EU were so concerned about the loss of life then the Dublin II treaty would have been quickly amended and a precedent would be set that any boat with would be migrants will be sent back and a genuine immigration system would be set up in these African nations so these tragedies will not happen.
But apparently not as they like things the way they are.
Ah, here’s another racist who agrees that black immigrants dying at sea is “Natural selection at its best” because “the world is overpopulated” and “this is one way of reducing the population”.
I’m sure he would think differently if the drowning persons were members of his family.
Then again, he might not, considering that he seems to have no respect for human life other than his own.
Kenneth Cassar, my family would not pay human traffickers to get them into Europe illegally. Most illegal immigrants have enough money to live a comfortable life in Africa.
@ Kenneth Cassar,
No, I believe in self responsibility.
I guess in your mind self responsibility only applies to all other races but the black race, now that is racist thinking .
Going out to sea in an open dinghy for a lengthy distance has risks that have to be taken to account BEFORE the decision is made to venture out.
Risk assessment is a human quality that when applied correctly, can yield big dividends in your bodily survival.
You take your chances, sometimes you lose.
That is the cruel reality of the real world.
I did not make up the rules to the game of life, that is how it is.
@ Ken il malti:
What has agreeing with someone who says that drowning immigrants is natural selection’s way of reducing the population got to do with self responsibility?
And where have I said or implied that “self responsibility only applies to all other races but the black race”? You need to do better than that to discredit me. Straw men won’t work.
As for the rest of your comment, I won’t even bother replying, since that wasn’t the issue I was questioning in my post.
You really need to do better than that.
@ Paul Bonnici:
My family would not pay human traffickers either. But what has this got to do with your callous (not to mention absurd) statement that reduces the tragedy of people dying at sea to “natural selection’s way of reducing the population”?
As for your equally absurd statement that “most illegal immigrants have enough money to live a comfortable life in Africa”, well, if you really believe that, you’ll believe anything. And you do know that Africa is a whole continent, don’t you?
@ Kenneth Cassar,
They drowned because they made a bad choice in their mode of transportation. Risk analysis was very faulty and they paid the ultimate price, what do you find hard to understand about that?
The risk analysis choice of an amateur fireworks maker is in the same vain, as we know so well in Malta.
Riding a motorcycle in today’s heavy traffic on the island is another bad choice. So is stealing earthing cables and copper buss bars in electrical substations, bad idea, but some people choose to do it and sometimes it does no go so well.
It is a choice some people make and it is regardless of race, so when their life is cut short then they have no one to blame but themselves. Free will and not very deep thinking gets them every time and I do not shed a tear for them, now is that racist? ( the most bandied about word on the planet) no it is not racist, heartless maybe but not racist.
Do you have children? If you do, can you look them in the face?
There has to be a place for people like this. Maybe Somalia?
“According to the sole survivor, an Eritrean man, 55 people boarded a dinghy in Libya in late June. He reported that all the other passengers died of dehydration during a 15 day ordeal.”
Is Paul Bonnici human?
Yes.
He is just inhumane.
“Man’s inhumanity to man” R.Burns.
Get lost
Here’s someone who speaks about natural selection without having the flimsiest idea of what it actually is or how it works.
Here’s a hint: natural selection has nothing to do with reducing populations.
Believe, believe – unfortunately, there are still such people around in Malta.
Imbaghad tiskanta kif jitla il-Labour?
Another useful way of dealing with numbers is to float all the racist bigots out on a dinghy with a minimum of provisions.
Paul Bonnici, your remark was sickening. Would you say the same if it were a member of your family trying to find a better life? You disgust me.
Utterly disgusting comment. Shame!
Bonnici, you are a very sick man and I don’t like your comments. They are usually puerile.
My God.
I pity your mother Paul. She really missed the boat when she picked out your name.
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120710/blogs/blame-or-shame.427902
I don’t have a single racist bone in my body. My statement was not racist.
I did not say it because they are black but because they are illegal economic immigrants. My best friends are black. Even if these victims were white Eastern Europeans I would have said the same thing.
These victims put their lives at risk and those of their rescuers. They paid a lot of money to their traffickers.
I always make a point of speaking to blacks in Malta, I sit next to them in a bus and try to strike up a conversation with them.
“Some of my best friends are gay”
Prosit Paul, Verament Prosit. You actually sit next to ‘blacks’ .What a moron.
Lol how typical. Your best friends are black? Really? U hallina.
Paul, this clarification of yours goes some way towards allaying lots of people’s anxieties about what you said.
“My son, keep (restrain) your tongue and keep thy friend”.
G. Chaucer.
@ Paul Bonnici:
Just for thinking and saying that all black “illegal immigrants” are economic immigrants, you are showing that you are clearly racist. And please excuse me for disbelieving you when you say your best friends are black.
And it strikes me as very odd that you say you always make a point of speaking to black people in Malta, and even sit next to them in a bus and try to strike up a conversation with them, when you think that these same people (were they not so lucky), could have drowned and thereby been part of what you describe as “natural selection’s way of reducing the population”.
I wonder: When speaking to black people on the bus, do you ever tell them that?
“Natural selection is the gradual, non-random, process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. ”
People drowning at sea is not an example of natural selection but an unfortunate tragedy.
Most people would prefer to remain in their country of origin and it takes dire circumstances for them to risk their lives in a rickety boat knowing that they may never reach their destination but have a good chance of dying at sea either through dyhydration or drowning.
@Paul Bonnici. Your remark is obscene.You are rejoicing in the deaths of people, terrible deaths through dehydration. Words fail me…
With all due respect to everybody – why doesn’t the UN organize a migration programme?
With ships and planes?
Instead of whining and making us all feel guilty…
It’s not that simple. That would require the opening of all borders.
If an earthquake were to strike Malta and wipe out the lives of thousands, would we blame it on our lousy construction standards and call it natural selection at its best?
Of course not.
Human solidarity demands that we rise up against the suffering of others and do whatever we can to prevent it.
“This news story is playing on Italian media now, but no word in the Maltese press except for timesofmalta.com just now. It doesn’t concern us, I suppose. If they drowned, it’s not news. If they head our way alive, it is.”
Thousands of people die in the “wars” that drive these other people away from their home and their country. I don’t remember reading anything you wrote about that. (That video to which you had linked, the one that showed those corpses in the desert, doesn’t count).
Farther still than the Mediterranean, perhaps?
[Daphne – That’s the way news works in normal situations, Reuben: closer to home, top priority interest. I’m guessing they weren’t as interested in the Libyan war out in Hawaii as we were here.]
I thought it was about the loss of human life …
@ Reuben Scicluna:
It is, but then again we don’t report every single death on earth. In any case, nobody’s stopping you from writing about wars in your own blog.
Were does Malta come in in this tragedy?
Malta is not responsible for the need of these desperate refugees to undertake this hazardous journey.
Malta is not responsible if any rescued refugees become stranded here as a direct result of the richer countries of mainland Europe refusing compulsory burden sharing.
These bigger countries prefer to change Malta into a latter day Al Catraz island prison where to contain the destitute refugees/illegal immigrants rescued by Malta but refused entry to mainland Europe.
But they will never succeed in doing so.
Why do you take such a defensive stance in relation to similar stories?
‘Malta’ may not be responsible in the ways that you mention, but Maltese people’s hostility and indifference are horrifically shocking.
Well said, Dr Saliba.
Fine Frans.
Our country has a ginormous political problem on its hands.
Granted.
This is no excuse, however, for Malta to shirk its humanitarian resposibilities even if for one moment.
These are all lies being distributed vby the UNHCR and its allies.
So are you saying nobody actually drowned? My, you’re really thick, aren’t you?
And a liar, too. Mustafa’ is an alias.
A comment from the board on timesofmalta.com:
Andrea Gatt
Today, 08:10
if they stayed in their country, they would still be alive :) i hope the other illegal immigrants who are thinking of coming here or Italy will learn the lesson !
That smiley face. What is this person, 11?
The fact that this sub-human c**t added a smiley face to the comment is so beyond me. How sick can one be.
Fifty-four lives lost and she thinks it’s a good thing. I’m so f**king disgusted.
And no, I won’t excuse myself for language used. It’s shameful that a person like that is not shunned into silence, rather than probably getting nods of agreement by so many readers.
So depressing.
Yes, and I replied (in Maltese) and was set upon by a handful of racists which, unfortunately, seem to comprise the majority of the population.
Andrea Gatt is very clearly totally oblivious to the real root of the problem.
Blissful ignorance.
May I add just to complete the ridiculous picture :
Why on earth don’t these awful black people book a Mediterranean cruise with MSC instead ?
How does money ensure a ‘not guilty verdict’?
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Dorian Flores
This morning Clive and Mark woke up in their own clean bed next to the people they love :)
about an hour ago near L-Imsida
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Lisa Grech-Mahoney Fantastic news :)))
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Ian Ellul Thank God!
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Anton Fava proset dorian very nice words this morning
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Tanya Sawyer great ..:)
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Dorian Flores No is the time for everybody to gear up for fund raising to make sure the never have to sleep another night not in their beds
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Suay Magri good thats what we all wanna here
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