European Commissioner coming to Malta for migrants’ funeral service

European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos is coming to Malta tomorrow night to attend the migrants’ funeral service which will be held on Thursday morning.

Italian coast guard vessel Bruno Gregoracci docked in Malta on Monday morning, bringing with it 24 bodies and 28 survivors – two of whom turned out to be smugglers.  

Smuggler Mohammed Ali Malek (right) sitting in a white boilersuit next to one of 27 other survivors as 24 bodies are transferred onto hearses in Malta. (Photo: Ray Attard)

The two men – identified as Mohammed Ali Malek and Mahmud Bikhit and who witnessed the transfer of the cadavers onto the waiting hearses – were arrested in Italy as soon as the Gregoracci docked in Catania.

The bodies were then carried into waiting hearses and transferred to the hospital morgue. MaltaToday is informed that 18 autopsies were carried out by Tuesday afternoon.

An interfaith ceremony will be carried out on Thursday morning, after which the perished migrants will be buried at the Addolorata Cemetery.

#Malta will next Thursday lay to rest the 24 recovered bodies of #Libya immigration tragedy.Symbolic inter-faith ceremony to start at 9am-JM

— Joseph Muscat (@JosephMuscat_JM) April 21, 2015

According to the UNHCR, the tragedy – which has claimed the lives of some 700 migrants – was “the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean we have ever recorded”.

The UNHCR said 1,300 deaths were reported in April alone, making it the deadliest month on record.