An alleged human trafficker threw
the body of a dead migrant overboard to sharks following their
dinghy during a sea crossing from North Africa, police in the
Sicilian city of Ragusa said Tuesday.
The accused, who is from Guinea, arrived with a group of
migrants on Monday, said officials who reported almost 8,500
people were rescued in waters off Italy over the previous four
days.
A further 1,169 arrived on Tuesday and with Italian
reception centres packed, more migrants may be sent by train to
northern Europe, officials said.
As many as 11 bodies were recovered from among the migrants
rescued in recent days, an EU migration official said.
The mass arrivals have heightened concerns that even larger
numbers than in previous years will be making the extremely
dangerous passage from Africa and the Middle East to Europe.
Too many fall into the hands of human traffickers who take
the migrants' money and abandon them on the seas.
Police said the migrant thrown to the sharks likely died
after he inhaled fumes from petrol that spilled over him in the
open boat on rough seas.
Witnesses on the vessel said they were terrified by the
sharks following the small boat, which disappeared after they
were thrown the body.
Europe must brace "to cope with a heavy migratory season"
with thousands of migrants poised to take to the Mediterranean
this summer, the European Commission warned from Brussels.
The EC is ready to "play its part" and its new "holistic
approach" will be unveiled next month, European Immigration
Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.
Estimates of the desperate migrants who will try the
dangerous crossing this summer range from 250,000 to 500,000.
Authorities have said that they are braced for even more
arrivals due to the improved weather and sea conditions that
have come with spring.
As many as 8,480 migrants were rescued in only four days
between Friday and Monday in waters off Italy, the Italian Coast
Guard said on Tuesday.
In the Strait of Sicily, 5,629 people were plucked from
small boats, rafts and dinghies over the weekend, officials
said.
On Sunday alone the Coast Guard rescued 22 migrant boats.
Another 2,851 individuals were rescued on Monday, they
added.
In one dinghy, a dead body was recovered.
Coast Guard officials said that many of the migrants were
Syrians while numerous others were fleeing sub-Saharan Africa
aboard about 16 boats and four rafts.
Many were found after distress calls were made via
satellite phones, a frequent procedure with human traffickers
who call for help before abandoning migrants who had paid
thousands of euros each for passage to Europe.
Four Coast Guard patrol boats as well as three boats from
the finance police and Navy vessels assisted the European
Union's Frontex border patrol craft.
Several commercial tugboats as well as an Icelandic patrol
board were also involved in Monday's rescue, with aircraft and
helicopters operated by the Coast Guard brought in to help.
Italy has seen a sharp increase this year in the already
enormous flow of migrants arriving on its coast from North
Africa.
It has been on the front lines, rescuing migrants who are
headed for other parts of Europe but arrive first in Italy
because the country's southernmost points are close to the North
African coast of Libya.
That has triggered some security concerns, but Foreign
Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Tuesday that there has been no
intelligence information to date suggesting that potential
terrorists could be among the boatloads of migrants.
"No one can rule it out in theory, but for now we do not
have intelligence information" to this effect, Gentiloni told
Radio 24.
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