Badly disfigured bodies of 21 young women and one man, including
Nigerians who died in the Mediterranean Sea were recovered from rubber
boats on Wednesday.
The search and rescue vessel run in partnership between Medecins Sans
Frontieres (MSF) and SOS MEDITERRANEE also rescued 209 people from the
dinghies. The rescued include two pregnant women and 50 children, of
whom 45 were travelling without parents or guardians.
The bodies were brought to port of Trapani, Sicily on
Friday, July 2 as fellow migrants described scenes of panic and
violence when water poured into their dinghy. Some survivors had bite
marks, testimony to a desperate struggle onboard to escape death.
People on the rubber dinghy said human traffickers in Libya had pushed
too many migrants aboard and the floor had split after the boat put to
sea, proving a death trap for young women who had been sitting in the
central section.
“I kept asking for help. Nobody would help. They were climbing on me to
stay out of the water. I thought I would die,” a 24-year-old Nigerian
woman named Mary told MSF.
“I had to bite to be able to breathe. The woman I bit stood up. Men were
standing on top of me. A woman stood on my face … A woman who was
pregnant died. We were under the water together.” said Mary.
Erna Rijnierse, an MSF doctor who was aboard the rescue ship, the MV
Aquarius, said there was an eerie silence when they neared the dinghy
and it was obvious there had been a struggle.
“You can tell it from the nail scratches on people’s arms and legs, but
also we had 10 people with human bites on arms, a back and also on the
lower back and ankles,” she said.
Mary told MSF she had been held in prison in Libya – immigrants are
often arrested there – for two months before finding a place on the
dinghy. Rijnierse said she believed many of the victims had been
detained prior to the trip and were too weak to fight their way off the
floor.
“They rape there. They are looking for young girls, you cannot say no,
they have guns, shout, speak in their language,” Mary said, describing
her ordeal in the prison before she managed to escape and meet up with
her husband.
Another Nigerian survivor, a 30-year-old man called David, urged would-be migrants not to make the journey.
“Taking the boat is very dangerous. That is the truth,” he said, adding:
“I feel bad about the women who died. It wasn’t supposed to happen.” he
said.
Nearly 3,000 migrants and refugees have died in the Mediterranean Sea
this year while trying to reach Europe – three quarters of them en route
from north Africa to Italy, the International Organization for
Migration said on Friday. Just over 80,000 people, mainly from Africa,
have reached Italy since Jan. 1, more or less in line with last year’s
numbers, according to official figures.
Source: MSF/REUTERS/UNHCR Italia
