Italy – October 24, 2013 Italy held a day of mourning (should be celebrating) on Friday for the estimated 300 African refugees feared dead after their boat sank off the remote island of Lampedusa, as rescuers recounted the horror of trying to save dozens of drowning people. As a minute’s silence was held in schools, rescuers described rushing to where the 66ft-long boat capsized half a nautical mile off the island, saying the sight of the Eritrean and Somali migrants flailing in the sea was reminiscent of the sinking of the Titanic. “They were drowning, it was like a scene from the Titanic,” said Sharanna Buonocorso, one of the first rescuers to reach the scene. She was part of a group of holidaymakers who were sleeping on a yacht anchored just off the coast of Lampedusa when they realised something had gone terribly wrong. As they approached the scene, they saw black dots in the water and heard screams. “They’re people, they are the heads of people,” one of the group, Linda Barocci, recalled saying to her friends. As the bodies were laid on the quayside, a young Eritrean woman whom officials thought was dead suddenly convulsed and vomited up sea [...]
↧