CATANIA, SICILY – Prosecutors in Sicily announced that the Tunisian captain of the capsized vessel that killed as many as 900 people was charged with reckless multiple homicide in relation to the sinking.
The captain and a Syrian crew member were arrested aboard the Italian coastguard ship, Gregoretti, as they arrived in port with the survivors of vessel that sank off the Greek Island of Rhodes.
Public prosecutor Giovanni Salvi, who was also on the harbor front, told reporters that the two men arrested had been identified thanks to the testimony of other survivors.
Salvi said several of the survivors identified the men as the two boat traffickers in charge of the ill-fated fishing vessel.
Furthermore, a 28th survivor, who is currently in hospital in Catania, independently identified both men when shown photographs of them.
The arrest of the two men came as European leaders struggled to find ways to stop migrant flows from Libya to Italy.
Libya is the source of 90 percent of migrant traffic to Italy.
Italian Premier Matteo Renzi urged Europe to focus on its response in the face of unremitting migrant flows.
“We are facing an organized 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.
The European Union has been under increasing criticism for lagging in its response to the crisis, with two shipwrecks believed to have taken the lives of as many as 1,300 migrants in the past week.
Sources, however, said the latest sea tragedy has awakened European leaders and a much effective response to illegal immigration is expected to be announced soon.
Reports said the despite the latest tragedy that claimed the lives of about 900 people, as many as 400.000 people are waiting in Libya to take their chance at crossing the hazardous Mediterranean sea to reach the shores of Italy. – BusinessNewsAsia.com