MEDITERRANEAN 'DEATH VOYAGE' SURVIVORS MAKE IT TO SHORE

Migrants being rescued during operation 'Mare Nostrum' in the southern Mediterranean sea off the Italian coast, 29 April 2014. (Photo: Giuseppe Lami/EPA) — Migrants being rescued during operation ‘Mare Nostrum’ in the southern Mediterranean sea off the Italian coast, 29 April 2014. (Photo: Giuseppe Lami/EPA)

Catania, 2 Rajab 1436/21 April 2015 (MINA) – Italian authorities have arrested two survivors of Sunday’s migrant boat disaster on suspicion of people trafficking, Infrastructure Minister Graziano Delrio said, after the men arrived in the Sicilian port of Catania.

Italian police interviewed 27 survivors of the wreck as they were brought to Italy on a coastguard vessel on Tuesday. As many as 900 people are believed to have drowned, Al Jazeera quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

Delrio said Catania state prosecutor Giovanni Salvi, who has opened a homicide investigation into the disaster, ordered the arrest of the two. Officials from the prosecutor’s office said they were the captain of the vessel and his first mate, the Reuters news agency reported.

“Prosecutor Salvi has made two arrests this evening of persons involved, which shows the Italian justice is working,” Delrio told reporters at the port.

Decrying what he called an “escalation in these death voyages”, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi on Monday urged Europe to put the focus on preventing more boats from leaving Libya, the source of 90 percent of migrant traffic to Italy.

“We are facing an organised criminal activity that is making lots of money, but above all ruining many lives,” Renzi said at a joint news conference with Malta’s prime minister, Joseph Muscat. He compared their activity to that of slave traders of centuries past, “unscrupulous men who traded human lives”.(T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)