Two arrested over drowning of up to 900 migrants off Libya

Two men have been arrested over last weekend’s boat disaster off the coast of Libya that caused the deaths of between 700 and 900 people.

When Italian coastguard ship the Gregoretti arrived into Catania port at midnight on Monday with 27 survivors of the shipwreck, two of the survivors were immediately arrested and taken into police custody.

The two men are the boat’s captain, Tunisian Mohammed Ali Malek (27), and ship’s mate Syrian Mahmud Bikhit. Both men have been charged with manslaughter, shipwreck and the promotion of clandestine immigration.

Confirmation of the arrests came from cabinet undersecretary and infrastructure minister Giovanni Delrio who was on the harbour front to officially acknowledge the arrival of the survivors.

Yesterday, there were further developments when Carlotta Sami, spokesperson for UN refugee agency UNHCR, said survivors had spoken of a "collision" between the migrant vessel and the King Jakob, the Portuguese merchant ship that had answered the migrants' alarm signals.

The Catania public prosecutor's office has not ruled out a collision. However, it believes that, even if the two vessels did come too close together, what was critical to the capsizing of the boat was migrants on the top deck rushing to one side when the King Jakob arrived, thus unbalancing a vessel that was already in difficulty.

Survivors’ testimony

Public prosecutor Giovanni Salvi confirmed that the two men arrested had been identified because of the testimony of other survivors.

Investigating magistrates, who began their questioning of survivors on the Gregoretti even before it left Malta on its way to Catania on Monday night, discovered that several of the survivors pointed to the Tunisian and the Syrian man as the two traffickers in charge of the ill-fated fishing vessel. In addition, a 28th survivor, who is in hospital in Catania, independently identified both men when shown photographs of them.

The initial enquiries would appear to confirm the worst suspicions of the rescue service: that the small overcrowded fishing vessel had three “levels” with 250 women and 50 children locked into the lowest level; that an unknown number of men were locked into level two; and that the captain and a smaller number of men were up on deck. Only some of those who were on deck appear to have survived.

Fallout

The political fallout of the tragedy continues to be felt. Tomorrow, an emergency EU summit in Brussels is expected to discuss plans for tackling the crisis by strengthening the mandate and capacity of the Mediterranean regulatory service.

The current authority, the EU’s Frontex border control operation, Triton, has been criticised in the last week, with critics saying it has neither the mandate nor the capacity to deal with the increased, clandestine traffic in migrants.

The International Organisation for Migration now estimates that about 1,750 people have drowned in the Mediterranean this year, 30 times higher than for the same period in 2014.

European Commission spokesperson Natasha Bertaud indicated that the summit may look at some form of “military operation” that will hit the human traffickers. Many countries, including Italy, are likely to urge the implementation of measures that will concentrate on the problems presented by the seemingly failed Libyan state.

Italian foreign minister Paolo Gentiloni said human trafficking now represented as much as 10 per cent of Libyan GDP, adding that the biggest problem posed by the crisis was not one of “resources” but of traffickers willing to send migrants out to sea in unseaworthy boats.