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'The war in Libya is too much,' says survivor on Italian island of Lampedusa
As many as 300 people are feared dead after a boat carrying migrants to Europe capsized south of Sicily in what is feared to have been one of the Mediterranean's worst such disasters.
Officials of the International Organisation for Migration who interviewed some of the 48 survivors had been told there had been about 350 people aboard the boat when it sank on Wednesday; there were migrants from Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sudan, Chad and Ivory Coast, the Italian AGI news agency said.
A man who identified himself as Peter Ugo, 28, from Cameroon, said the boat had set off from the Libyan coast on Monday. He said he had been fleeing from harassment by opponents of the Gaddafi regime.
"The war is too much", he told reporters on the Italian island of Lampedusa. "They steal our property, steal our money every day. They try to threaten us to leave [Libya] or they will kill us. Or they give us guns to fight against Gaddafi. We were not able to face the fight."
Ugo said that he had spent two years living and working in Libya. He later indicated that migrants in the country had been offered money to fight for the government.
The vessel on which he was travelling made contact with the Maltese rescue services in the early hours of Wednesday after running into heavy seas and high winds. The Maltese passed on the appeal for help to the Italian authorities, who ordered a revenue guard helicopter and two coastguard patrol boats to the area.
The rescue services arrived at around 4am local time, but were unable to get anyone off the foundering vessel before it overturned.
"Water started coming inside the boat and everyone started shouting that the boat had to [sink]", said Ugo. "Half the people fell into the water, including my girlfriend and two brothers. The water filled my mouth. I pulled [off] my jacket, and then I … began to [swim]."
He said that he managed to get to one of the rescue boats and was pulled aboard. His 24-year-old girlfriend had drowned, he said.
According to Italian media reports, some 20 bodies had been spotted in the area, including those of women and children. Italian and Maltese rescue workers searching for survivors were being hampered by the same rough weather that led to the tragedy.
Three-metre waves were reported from the area, and strong winds of up to 30 knots. Conditions are not forecast to improve before Thursday.
The numbers who die in Mediterranean migrant trafficking disasters are seldom established with certainty. But this is thought to have been the second since the start of the current upheaval in North Africa: last weekend, a boat carrying 335 Eritreans was reported missing by the UN's refugee agency.
More than 20,000 illegal migrants, most of them from Tunisia, have reached Italy so far this year.
