Death Toll Soars After Migrant Boat Capsizes Off Coast Of Libya
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On Thursday, Italian ships scrambled to save a record of 4,000 migrants. The warmer weather and the crackdown on the Turkey route pushed increasing numbers to make the treacherous journey from Libya.
A fishing boat capsized in the Mediterranean and dozens more migrants were feared drowned, as survivors from the previous day's disaster were still recovering from their nightmare at sea.
More than 22 rescue operations pushed European naval resources to the limit, with the Italian coast guard enforced to recruit three private ships and four offshore oil platform tugs to help.
"We called on all the vessels we could," coast guard spokesman Filippo Marini said, adding that previous highs of migrant rescues have been up to 6,000 over two days.
The most recent escalation in the migrant crisis came as David Cameron declared that a British warship will begin intercepting people smugglers and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) weaponry off the coast of Libya “within weeks”, with a formal appeal from the Libyan government expected in the coming days.
The UK battleship will track and intercept the boats being used by smugglers to send migrants to Europe.
The disclosure that British troops will be dealing directly with arms smugglers increases the risk of the UK becoming involved in an armed conflict with Isil jihadists, although speaking at the G7 Summit in Japan Mr Cameron said that British forces will not be involved in a ground conflict with Isil in Libya.
On Thursday night EU and Italian naval authorities were still treating 96 survivors pulled from a sinking ship 35 miles off the coast of Libya as the 562 survivors of the Wednesday’s overturned migrant boat stepped onto the quayside in the southern Sicilian city of Porto Empedocle.
Psychologists, aid workers and medical personnel were on hand in Sicily to tend to the survivors of the first shipwreck, including 43 children, who had begun recounting their terrifying ordeal.
“They are shocked and very tired. One of them fainted right before our eyes,” Save the Children’s Giovanna Di Benedetto told the Telegraph from the quayside at Porto Empedocle.
“We have seen people from Syria, Morocco and Eritrea, and many, many children, some of them very young.”
Thursday's shipwreck came a day after an Italian Navy ship, the Bettica, captured on camera the dramatic moment that a large fishing boat capsized on Wednesday, with more than 500 people aboard.
Witnesses said the ship tossed over when the migrants traveling below deck as ballast moved to one side during the rush to get out.
The Italian navy captain who led the Bettica's rescue, Francesco Iavazzo, said his crew members had acted bravely, tossing themselves into the sea to save the migrants and even pulling some of them out of the sea by their hair.
"At sea, the saving of human lives is something sacred," he said. “In this tragedy the one small consolation is that we saved all the children.”
There were 10 babies among 43 children saved, who were given toy bears from the sailors once safe on board.
Admiral Salvatore Vitiello, who was aboard the frigate Bergamini during the rescue, told the Corriere della Sera he was deeply moved by the joy and tears of the survivors who were brought aboard his ship.
Britain already has four vessels working near to Libyan waters. However, after Libya makes a formal request the boats will for the first time take part in intervention within the country's territorial waters.
Britain will seek agreement from the EU and the United Nations within weeks allowing it to send the warship to Libya.
A Downing Street spokesman on Thursday night said: "We will help the Libyan government build the capacity of their coastguard to intercept boats off the Libyan coast, both those carrying migrants and those carrying arms. We will now take an active leadership role in that process."
"Once the relevant UN Security Resolutions are in place we intend to deploy a Navy warship to the region to assist in the interception of arms and human smuggling."
The flow of migrants has increased amid the turmoil that followed the 2011 uprising that toppled Muammar Gaddafi.
Speaking at the G7 summit on Thursday, Mr Cameron said: "We are saying this is going to take time and it is difficult. For the very reason that we are not putting in Western ground troops, we are working with the Iraqi security forces, we are working in Syria with moderate opposition, and Kurdish forces and the rest of it.
"And this takes time. I accept it does take time because you need to build the capacity of the ground."
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