List of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea

Refugee and migrant deaths in the Mediterranean Sea, 2011-2016. Source: UNHCR^[1]

This article is a list of migrant vessels captured or capsized on the Mediterranean Sea. The incidents have been referred to as part of the European migrant crisis.

Prior to 2015

2015

Mediterranean situation in 2015

Sicily Lampedusa Rhodes Tripoli List of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea (Mediterranean)
Date	2015
Location	Various locations in the Mediterranean Sea
Cause	Vessels capsized
Outcome	Several vessels sank, rescues in process
Deaths	Over 1200 (estimated; 35 confirmed)
Missing	450

The number of reported deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean towards Italy increased in April 2015; a number of different incidents resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 people and led to the staging of rescue operations.^[9]

13 April

On 13 April 2015, a vessel sank off the Libyan coast with up to 550 migrants on board. More than 400 people are believed to have drowned.^[10] 144–150 people have been rescued and were taken to a hospital in Southern Italy.^[11] The capsizing occurred 60 nautical miles (110 km) off the Libyan coast.^[12]

Air and sea search operations started in the location of the shipwreck, looking for survivors. Nine bodies were recovered, and the Italian Coast Guard stated that "no more survivors have been found."

16 April

On 16 April, four immigrants arriving in Sicily said they were the only survivors of a sunken ship. They said that 41 people had drowned when their vessel overturned and sank shortly after departing from Libya.^[13][14] In an unrelated incident, 15 people were arrested in Sicily following reports that they had thrown 12 other passengers overboard, causing them to drown. According to eyewitnesses, a fight had broken out between Christian and Muslim groups on a boat that left Libya on 14 April, resulting in 12 Christians being thrown overboard.^[15][16]

19 April

On 19 April, another boat that had just left the port city of Zuwarah, Tripoli capsized off the Libyan coast, during the night, with up to 850 migrants aboard. 28 people were rescued.^[17] The incident happened 60 miles (100 km) off the Libyan coast and 120 miles (190 km) south of the southern Italian island, Lampedusa.^[18] The boat may have capsized when people on board moved to one side when a ship approached. People assumed that the passing ship would rescue them.^[19] Italian prosecutors say that a Bangladeshi survivor estimated 950 people were on board, and smugglers locked hundreds of the migrants in the ship's hold.^[20] Among those on board were about 350 Eritreans, 200 Senegalese, as well as migrants from Syria, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia.^[21][22]

The Maltese Navy and Italian Coast Guard began mounting a rescue operation.^[23] Despite 18 ships joining the rescue effort, only 28 survivors and 24 bodies were pulled from the water by nightfall.^[24][20] This incident is cited by some as the shipwreck with the highest death toll in the history of the Mediterranean.^[25] Among other incidents, however, the sinking of the SS Oria in 1944, with a death toll of over 4,000, claimed more lives.

On 21 April Italian officials reported that the Tunisian captain of the boat had been charged with reckless multiple homicide. It was also reported that the children on board had drowned because they were trapped on the boat's lower two levels.^[24][26]

The Italian Navy, at the request of the Prosecutor of Catania, has made available the minesweepers Gaeta and Vieste, along with the corvette Sfinge, for search and localization of the vessel sank.

On 7 May 2015 a wreck blue length of 25 meters has been located approximately 85 miles north east of the Libyan coast at a depth of 375 meters, and correlated - said the Italian Navy - with the wreck of the vessel sank on 18 April.^[27]

20 April

Another boat carrying migrants reportedly sank off the east coast of Rhodes, Greece on 20 April, after striking a reef. Initial reports suggested that there had been at least three deaths. 93 people were rescued from the water, with 30 individuals hospitalized.^[28] In contrast to the other wrecked ships, which have come from Libya, this boat had departed from Turkey.^[29]

Two further reports of ships in distress in the waters between Libya and Italy appeared on 20 April.^[30] It was stated that one boat contained up to 150 people, with the other containing up to 300. The precise locations of these boats was not revealed, and it was unclear whether these reports refer to separate vessels.^[31] The Italian and Maltese navies are reported as having responded to these calls.^[24][31] On Tuesday 21 April it was reported that all 450 passengers had been rescued, despite initial reports of deaths.^[32]

5 May

Continue rescue operations and landings of migrants on the coasts of Sicily and Calabria. The ship Phoenix arrives in Pozzallo carrying 369 migrants. Other 675 immigrants have landed in Augusta and in 300 were rescued off the coast of Calabria. On ship container Zeran, arrived in Catania with 197 people, there were five dead bodies. According to Save the Children 40 other immigrants have lost their lives at sea.^[33] In Crotone the Panamanian tanker Prince I brought 250 migrants rescued in the Channel of Sicily, but also the bodies of three others, two women and a man, recovered at sea during a rescue.

Meanwhile, also triggered the alarm diseases: about 150 of the 675 migrants arrived on the ship Vega in Augusta were put in isolation in the port for suspected cases of chickenpox and scabies. For doctors there is no danger of contagion and the situation would be under control. Most patients are tested and debilitated by a wait of two months in warehouses in Libya with little food and water.

In Trapani are 104 immigrants arrived on a cargo ship, and other 483 in Palermo on the Italian navy ship Borsini. It also grows the number of smugglers arrested by the Italian police.

Off the coast of Calabria, a rescue operation at about 300 migrants on board a fishing vessel in poor buoyancy occurred about 80 miles from the coast of Calabria.

29 May

The Italian navy rescued 217 migrants who were on board the boats adrift in the channel of Sicily. Also recovered 17 corpses. In the last 24 hours rescued 3,300 migrants.^[34]

23 July

283 migrants aboard three boats were rescued by the German warship Schleswig-Holstein at few miles from the Libyan coast and landed in the port of Augusta in Sicily, while 40 are missing or dead according to the testimonies of survivors.

15 August

49 migrants killed by fumes while packed into hold and prevented from exiting the hold by the ship's crew off the coast of Libya; survivors were rescued by the Italian Navy and the ship's captain and crew were arrested.^[6][7]

18 August

6 migrants drown off the coast of Turkey attempting to reach a Greek island.^[8]

25 August

50 migrants killed by fumes while packed into the hold and prevented from exiting by the ship's crew off the coast of Libya; survivors were rescued by a Swedish unit. On the boat there traveled another 400 migrants who were rescued.

See also

References