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Council of Europe slams lack of aid for migrants

07 September 2011, 18:16 CET
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(ROME) - About 2,000 migrants have gone missing since the start of the year, and probably died, trying to cross the Mediterranean because European nations failed to help them, a Council of Europe official said Wednesday.

"We want to get the facts on the table in order to know what went wrong ...," said Tineke Strik, a Dutch senator tasked by the Council of Europe's parliamentary assembly with investigating the disappearance of refugees and migrants who fled north Africa.

She was particularly keen to find out why 61 migrants out of 72 died as they tried to reach the southern Italian island of Lampedusa by boat in May.

"Was it a kind of wrong communication, or was it a deliberate choice not to intervene, not to rescue these people. This is what we want to know," she said during a visit to Rome to meet survivors and Italian officials.

"The EU member states also did not react adequately and appropriately to this incident," Strik added.

"They could have accepted more refugees who were stuck in Tunisia for instance, but they also could have supported Italy but also Malta more in order to cope with this crisis of course."

"My latest information is that approximately 2,000 people were being missed only this year," she said. "But of course we don't know."

She cautioned that family members would have to be questioned on whether the migrants arrived somewhere.

"It's very hard to get a clear picture. We know there are a lot of them. This case (in May) is so unique, because they made themselves known, they said we are here at this location and we are in need of help."

Strik said that in this particular incident "there was a rough sea, there was no food or drink anymore, they got sick and they ran out of fuel.

"Therefore they needed help, they called a priest in Rome, who mentioned the call to the Italian border guard and to NATO and said these people are in need for help.

"The strange thing is that a helicopter came, he threw some water, he threw some biscuits, disappeared and never came back."

Strik said that some migrants "had really severe wounds", with some suffering from burns from hot fuel.


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