Mediterranean boat capsizing: deadliest incident on record
This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards – to whom quoted text may be attributed – at today's press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.
UNHCR has now interviewed most of the survivors of Saturday's boat tragedy in the Mediterranean. According to the survivors, their boat departed from Tripoli in Libya on Saturday morning with some 850 people on board, including many children. Among those on board were some 350 Eritreans, as well as people from Syria, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Ethiopia.
Only 28 people are known to have survived the shipwreck, including a young man from Bangladesh who was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Catania, Sicily, on Sunday, and 27 people who were disembarked later by the Italian Coast Guard in Catania. From available information and the various accounts we've had, UNHCR now believes the number of fatalities to have been over 800, making this the deadliest incident in the Mediterranean we have ever recorded.
ADDITIONAL: Summary of spoken comments by Volker Türk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection (made in reference to the EU Joint Foreign and Home Affairs Council 10-point action plan on migration of 20 April 2015)
UNHCR welcomes the EU responsibility-sharing measures contained in the plan, such as asylum processing, relocation, and resettlement, which provide a welcome starting point for this response. UNHCR would also urge that such measures be expanded to further strengthen the asylum and protection component of the plan, including:
- Developing a robust search and rescue operation, along the lines of Mare Nostrum, which places an emphasis on saving thousands of lives;
- Making a firm commitment to receive a significant number of refugees for resettlement;
- Providing legal alternatives, such as enhanced family reunification, private sponsorship schemes, and work and study visas, so that persons in need of international protection do not need to resort to such dangerous voyages;
- Including a system of support for those countries receiving the most arrivals (Italy and Greece), and;
- Distributing responsibility for arrivals to avoid the current situation where a few countries are receiving most asylum-seekers, mainly Germany and Sweden, including through a comprehensive application of Dublin III and an intra-EU pilot relocation project for Syrians.
Media contacts:
- In Geneva, Adrian Edwards: +41 79 557 9120, [email protected]
- In Geneva, William Spindler: +41 79 217 3011, [email protected]
- In Rome, Federico Fossi: +39 349 0843461, [email protected]
- In Catania, Barbara Molinario: +39 338 546 2932, [email protected]
- In Catania, Carlotta Sami: +39 335 679 4746, [email protected]
- In Valetta, Fabrizio Ellul: +356 9969 0081, [email protected]
- In London, Andrej Majecic: +44 20 7484 5891, [email protected]
- In Paris, Philippe Leclerc: +44 144 43 48 50, [email protected]
- See also Media page
Your search for « catania » matched 32 results. Displaying page 1 of 4 pages.
-
Douglas Booth
... Whilst there, he sat on the judging panel of an uplifting and inspiring refugee talent competition held in Catania’s main square. Previously, Douglas had travelled with UNHCR to the Greek island of ...... -
Syrian refugees struggle to reach family in Malta
7 Sep 2015 ... CATANIA, ITALY, Sept 7 (UNHCR) - For Ali and Mohammad, both 23, the hardest part of their journey ... to a mosque in Catania, Sicily, their last stop before Malta. "There's nothing left of my city." ...... -
Italian rescue effort gives dignified burial to refugee shipwreck victims
10 Jul 2015 ... CATANIA, Italy, July 10 (UNHCR) - Six victims of a shipwreck in which an estimated 800 fleeing ... lowered into graves in the community cemetery on the outskirts of Catania, Sicily's second city. ...... -
Refugee Protection and Mixed-Migration: The 10-Point Plan in Action: Chapter 4 Reception arrangements. Annex 4 - Lampedusa and Melilla, Southern frontier of fortress Europe, GUE/NGL (European Parliamentary Group) Publication, 2005
1 Jun 2009 ... Preface by Francis Wurtz 5 Introduction by Giusto Catania 6 lampedusa 8 First visit by a European ... Giusto Catania g ue/ngl migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who were trying to climb over the double ...... -
Mediterranean boat capsizing: deadliest incident on record
21 Apr 2015 ... including a young man from Bangladesh who was transported by helicopter to a hospital in Catania, Sicily, on Sunday, and 27 people who were disembarked later by the Italian Coast Guard in Catania. ...... -
UNHCR Global Appeal 2016-2017 - Ensuring protection
1 Dec 2015 ... Etaidal, 22, cradles her daughter after arriving safely by boat in Catania port, Italy. Their house in Damascus was destroyed in the war three years ago. Protection P rotection Ensuring 79 U NHCR ...... -
Women fleeing FGM find abuse in Libya
18 Oct 2017 ... Greece: Woman and children flee FGM to face abuse in Libya (Vania Turner, producer / Béla Szandelszky, camera) CATANIA, Italy – Aisha (not her real name) was seven years old when she underwent the ...... -
Sicily to Syria and Back Again
7 Aug 2015 ... Helen and Alfonso were married in Catania, Alfonso's hometown, and it was there that Helen conceived ... About a year after the Camastras left, I met Alberto at a street café in Catania. The strain of the ...... -
Mediterranean crossings rise in first months of 2014 - many fleeing war and persecution
11 Apr 2014 ... They have disembarked in the ports of Augusta, Catania, Porto Empedocle, Messina and Pozzallo in Sicily and Roccella Jonica in Calabria. Large numbers of women and children, including newborns and ......