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THE SIX MIGRANTS who drowned off a tourist beach in Sicily were Egyptians after their boat was abandoned at sea by a larger vessel, Italian media has reported.
The six victims who jumped from a fishing boat thinking they had arrived onshore were identified as between 17 and 27 years of age.
Rescue
A boat illegally transporting nearly 100 migrants had hit a sandbar about 15 metres from the shore, and some of them managed to swim to the beach. Others were rescued by the Italian coastguard.
Investigators believe that the boat was transporting more than 100 passengers, mostly Syrians and some Egyptians, of whom 94 were accounted for on Sunday. Three smugglers escaped by jumping into the sea, according to media reports.
The old wooden boat carrying the migrants had been towed by a “larger ship” and abandoned off the coast of Catania in eastern Sicily, according to police.
Immigrants
Italian Foreign Minister Emma Bonino told local radio Sunday there was “no miracle solution” to the influx of immigrants from war-torn and poverty-stricken countries in the Middle East and Africa, and said Italy was “not the dreams of these immigrants.”
The southern European country was instead “a country of transit,” she added, emphasising the difficulty of preventing such incidents.
“The southern borders of Libya are out of control and harbour Sudanese, Nigerians and many others,” she said.
Syrians travelled through Lebanon and then Egypt, and since the war in Iraq immigrants passed through Turkey and ended up in Greece, Italy and Spain, “the countries suffering the heaviest burden,” she added.
Two Egyptians aged 16 and 17 were also questioned by police, believed to have been responsible for distributing food onboard the vessel, according to prosecutors.
The prosecutor of Catania, Giovanni Salvi, opened an investigation into incitement to illegal immigration and possible multiple homicide on Saturday.
To enter unnoticed to a city the size of Catania, “they were probably transferred at night from a larger vessel or they would have been spotted earlier,” he told the Catholic newspaper L’Avvenire.
This implied the existence of an “organised network,” including possible links with the Sicilian Mafia, he said.
Another vessel carrying 80 Egyptians and Syrians ran into trouble in Calabria, southern Italy today but managed to pull away from a sandbank without any injuries, the fifth boat of migrants in the region in the last two weeks.
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If the Palestinians want solutions to their problems they need to start at home. They have no leadership worth discussing. No point in having an independant state if you cant run it. While Israel is a large part of their problems they themselves inspire little confidence in peaceful co existance.
Meanwhile life goes on as normal
“In June, the Islamic Jihad held the “Generation of Faith” summer camp in Rafah for boys aged 6-16. The camp activities included various military exercises, such as “kidnapping soldiers,” firing guns using live ammunition, and crossing obstacle courses. The campers also heard lectures on religion, and were trained in various other fields, such as first aid, scouting, civil defense, martial arts, and behavior during emergencies”
Lovely. Mort’s post speaks volumes about the “downtrodden” Palestinians.
Much like the Israeli practice of military service then ?
If you were under military occasion for forty six years , military training might seem like a good idea too ?
6 year old boys being trained to kill, so sad.
The IDF have no problem shooting six year olds, even sadder.
What are you talking about Gavan? The IDF do not target children. Hamas on the other hand like to push their own children directly into harms way. Hamas also like to use imagery taken in other conflicts and claim it as something happening in either Gaza or in the West Bank. You’ve probably never been to either Palestine or Israel and just like spouting nonsense on a topic that you are completely clueless about.
Cowards hiding behind women and children. No backbone.
Yeah the Palestinians played up on that Muhammad al-Durrah “shooting” for years but the French Supreme court and a new review of France 2′s unedited footage have killed that lie. If, and it’s a very big if, he was shot the shots came from Palestinians. Then there are the numerous cases of them using pictures of dead and injured children from Syria and claiming them as Palestinians. Or the propaganda from Egyptian PM Kandil with the body of four year old Mahmoud Sadallah who they claimed was killed by the IAF, but the UN report found was hit by a Hamas rocket.
It’s you who seems to be both clueless and brainless Brian. The IDF have been murdering children for years , hundreds of them in both Palestine and surrounding countries, read the UN and other reports of the assault on Gaza if its not too much for you
And when Hamas fire rockets indiscriminately into Israel, what do you call that?
It is murder, the same as sending an F 16 or apache helicopter to bomb a civilian area
And when the rockets are fired from civilian areas, where should the response be directed?
That’s the standard excuse the IDF use,unfortunately it does not hold up, like when they attacked the UN base in Lebanon killing hundreds of people and the video evidence proved there had been no rocket fire from the base.
The UN and HRW are both on record accusing Hamas of firing indiscriminately into civilian areas, from civilian areas in the west bank, including a UN funded school. Using civilians as both targets and human shields are both considered war crimes.
The IDF use civilians as human shields, it is called the neighbour policy, and have committed more than their share of war crimes , including using white phosphorus depleted uranium munitions and the whole collective punishment of the Palestinian people, all considered war crimes under the Geneva convention.
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