Death toll in migrants’ tragedy could rise to 200

Claims by survivors of Friday's shipwreck off Lampedusa that the boat was carrying around 400 persons could be correct, the Colonel at the head of the AFM Operations Squadron said.

Government and AFM statements put the number of migrants on board the boat that capsized 60 nautical miles south of Lampedusa at 250 of which around 50 persons were thought to be dead or missing.

However, Colonel Claudio Spiteri told MaltaToday that the army based its estimate on the images captured by the AFM aircraft involved in the reconnaissance operation.

As confirmed by Prime Minister Joseph Muscat yesterday, the dewath toll of the incident could range anywhere between 50 and 200.

Contrary to initial reports, survivors who spoke to MaltaToday at Mater Dei Hospital explained that the boat which capsized on Friday was carrying between 400 and 450 persons, including around 100 children.

He said that the images taken by the Hawker Beech King Air B200 maritime patrol aircraft only showed the migrants who were on the upper decks of the boat before it capsized.

"For all we know, the lower decks could have been packed, as we have witnessed in many other similar cases. We could only base our calculations on what we could see on the upper deck," Col. Spiteri said.

The boat could not be recovered after it sank, and an AFM spokesperson explained that if the boat was carrying persons in the lower decks these could be trapped inside, and unless the bodies emerge to the surface, these bodies will probably never be recovered.

Surveillance operations are still underway, however these could be suspended if no other survivors or bodied are recovered in the next few days.

Survivors of Friday's ordeal, mainly Syrian refugees, also said that their boat was shot at by armed Libyan persons, claims which prompted the Libyan government to open an investigation.

Asked whether, the AFM aircraft who first spotted the boat on Friday at 4pm had sighted any other vessels in the area, Col. Spiteri said that the images do not show any other boats apart from the one carrying the migrants.

On Saturday, migrants told MaltaToday that the boat which was around 20-metres long carried many more persons then first reported and the real reason why the boat capsized was because the vessel was shot at by Libyan military personnel who were following the migrants in a separate vessel.

They also said that at least two persons were killed in the shooting and the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said three people were wounded in the shooting, citing reports from migrants. It said the shots were fired "perhaps by militiamen who shot to kill".

Although, Col. Spiteri could not confirm the real reason why the boat capsized, he said that images captured by the AFM aircraft showed that for some reason the migrants shifted to one side of the boat causing it to turnover.

Describing the incident as "particular," Col. Spiteri said that on being informed by the aircraft personnel that a boat was in distress 61 miles south of Lampedusa, he immediately dispatched the P-61 patrol boat which was around an hour away from the scene.

However, a few minutes later, the aircraft reported that the boat had capsized and that numerous persons were in the water.

"On hearing this I ordered the King Air to drop a life- raft in close proximity of the persons in distress and immediately contacted the Italian command to dispatch their assets."

Moreover, Col. Spiteri requested the Italian military mission in Malta to dispatch their helicopters stationed din Malta, which eventful participated in the operation to evacuate severely injured survivors to medical facilities in Lampedusa.