Divers recover 10 more bodies after Italy shipwreck
Hundreds feared dead after boat carrying asylum-seekers sank near Lampedusa
Divers began the recovery of dozens of migrants’ bodies on Sunday from a boat that sank last week off the coast of Sicily in one of the worst such disasters to hit people fleeing violence, poverty and oppression in Africa.
About 500 migrants were packed onto the boat, which caught fire and capsized on Thursday, according to survivors. More than 200 are still missing, 111 bodies have been recovered and authorites say many will never be found.
Ten bodies were brought to the surface within half an hour of the first dive, finance police spokesman Leonardo Ricci said, despite 28-mph gusts of wind and a metre-high swell. Police expect to find about 100 bodies in and around the wreck.
The team’s 40 divers are working in small groups because, at a depth of 47 metres, each one will only be able to remain about 10 minutes on the wreck at a time. Choppy seas and strong winds stopped divers working on Friday.
On Saturday, some of the 155 Somali and Eritrean survivors paid their respects to the men, women and children whose bodies are lying in a hangar at the island’s airport.
The disaster has put a new focus on decades-long problems around illegal immigration from North Africa. The fate of the survivors underscores the shortcomings of the centres that house migrants and on the laws that are aimed at keeping them away.
More than 1,000 migrants at Lampedusa’s migrant centre are living in overcrowded and unhygienic conditions. Hundreds, including many families with small children, sleep outside on foam mattresses because the structure has room for only 250. Many took shelter in buses during a heavy downpour on Sunday.