41 people drown in migrant boat shipwreck off Italian coast

By Francesca Merlo

Another forty-one deaths in the Mediterranean sea.

With the summer months come calmer seas, and therefore more attempts to cross its waters, as countless people seek to reach what they hope will be a better life.

The boat carrying 45 migrants from various parts of Africa sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa – a coast whose waters have become an open graveyard in recent years.

More than 1,800 people have lost their lives so far this year in the crossing from North Africa to Europe.

Testimonies of those who survived

On this occasion, forty-one migrants lost their lives in the shipwreck after having set sail from Sfax, in Tunisia. Four people, originally from the Ivory Coast and Guinea Konakry, survived, reaching land on Wednesday, 9 August.

The survivors - three men and a woman - told rescuers that they were on a boat carrying 45 people, including three children. They said their boat left Sfax on Thursday last week, but sank within hours.

All of the migrants, according to survivors, went overboard. Only 15 had life jackets, but drowned anyway.  

The survivors said they were rescued by a cargo ship and then transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel but neither the Maltese-flagged bulk carrier "Rimona" that rescued them, nor Coast Guard patrol boats spotted any bodies.

The four people were rescued several days after the shipwreck and at a sizeable distance from where the tragedy occurred.

From Tunisia to Sicily

The Italian coast guard reported two shipwrecks in the area on Sunday, but it is not clear whether this vessel is one of those.

Tunisian authorities say Sfax, a port city about 80 miles (130km) from Lampedusa, is a popular gateway for migrants seeking safety and a better life in Europe.

In recent days, Italian patrol boats and charity groups have rescued another 2,000 people who have arrived on Lampedusa.

Pope Francis' prayers in Lampedusa

Exactly ten years ago, on 8 July 2013, Pope Francis visited the small Sicilian island of Lampedusa to address what he described as “Immigrants dying at sea, in boats which were vehicles of hope and became vehicles of death”.

He spoke of the indifference, asking in fact, how many, if any people, “wept in our world” when the news of these unnmamed people – because they are people – reaches us.

As people continue to lose their lives at sea, the Holy Father continues in his mission to sensitise the people and institutions that so often turn to look the other way.