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Abandoned cargo vessel with 450 migrants on board being towed to Italy Abandoned ship Ezadeen with 450 migrants on board being towed to Italy
(about 1 hour later)
An Icelandic coastguard ship is towing a cargo vessel to Italy with about 450 migrants on board who were abandoned by smugglers, leaving the vessel navigating without a crew. A ship carrying hundreds of migrants was on Friday being towed towards the southern Italian coast as fears grew that the human traffickers operating in the Mediterranean had found a new and ruthlessly effective way of combating the cancellation of Italy’s search and rescue policy, known as Operation Mare Nostrum.
Italian coastguard commander Filippo Marini said that after several hours of struggling in rough seas, rescue teams managed to secure the Ezadeen for towing towards the southern Calabrian region. Three coastguards took control of the ship after landing on it by helicopter, he said. The Sierra Leone-flagged Ezadeen was the second vessel in four days to be abandoned by its crew in rough seas, forcing the Italian authorities to intervene to prevent a disaster, and possibly the loss of many lives. In a statement, the Italian coastguard said three of its officers had taken control of the ship after landing a helicopter on it.
The Icelandic ship towing the cargo vessel is part of a new European patrol force to aid migrants at sea. The Ezadeen had been drifting without power about 40 nautical miles off the coast with as many as 450 people on board. “We know that it left from a Turkish port and was abandoned by its crew,” coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said in an interview with SkyTG24 television. “When we hailed the ship to ask about its status, a migrant woman responded, saying, ‘We are alone and we have no one to help us.’”
Children and pregnant women were among the migrants – believed to be mostly Syrians – said Marini. The Sierra-Leone-flagged cargo ship apparently set sail from Turkey. It had been put on a collision course for the Italian coast but ran out of fuel, he said. A similar tactic was used by the crew of a ship which, on Tuesday, put out a distress call as it passed the Greek island of Corfu on its way into the Adriatic Sea.
The exact port of the Ezadeen’s arrival will depend on sea conditions, authorities said. Almost 800 migrants, mostly Syrian refugees, landed in Italy the following day after the Italian rescue services took command of the vessel. The Moldovan-registered Blue Sky M was within five miles and 45 minutes’ sailing time of a disaster when it was boarded and brought under control.
Earlier on Friday, Marini said that a migrant had called for help saying: “We’re without crew, we’re heading toward the Italian coast and we have no one to steer.” On Thursday Italian police arrested four men they claim were the skipper and crew of the Blue Sky M.  Prosecutors investigating the incident believe the Syrian captain and his crew did not leave the ship, as originally believed, but mingled with the migrants after abandoning the vessel to its fate.
The incident comes two days after Italian sailors intercepted a freighter carrying more than 700 mostly Syrian migrants which had been on autopilot heading for the rocks off Italy’s south-eastern shore, having been abandoned by people smugglers who had navigated it from Turkey via Greek waters. The Ezadeen was secured by rescue teams for towing after several hours of struggling to attach a line, Marini said. Southern Italy is currently in the grip of unusually low temperatures and high winds.
In that incident, the Moldovan-registered Blue Sky M ship got to within five miles – 45 minutes’ sailing time – of a disaster before six navy officers were lowered on to the ship by helicopter and succeeded in bringing it under control. An Icelandic ship – part of a new European patrol force to aid migrants at sea – was towing the abandoned cargo vessel towards a port in the southern region of Calabria. The force was intended to fill the gap left by Operation Mare Nostrum, which had a more proactive remit to search for migrants in distress, rather than wait for them to raise the alarm after entering Italian waters.
The vessel’s human cargo included some 60 children and two pregnant women, one of whom gave birth on board, according to the Italian Red Cross. Children and pregnant women were among the migrants – believed to be mostly Syrians – Marini said.
Many of the migrants on the ship were treated for hypothermia and broken limbs. More than 170,000 people trying to reach Europe have been plucked from the sea by Italian rescuers in the past 14 months. But hundreds, and possibly thousands, have perished trying to make the crossing.
Italy has also had to grapple with the aftermath of the Norman Atlantic ferry disaster in which at least 13 people died following an onboard fire before dawn on Sunday in waters off Albania.
The number of people attempting to reach Europe by sea from the Middle East, Africa and Asia reached a record in 2014.
More than 170,000 people have been rescued by Italy in the last 14 months and hundreds, possibly thousands, have perished trying to make the crossing.
They are almost invariably under the control of traffickers who earn thousands of dollars for every person they put to sea from Libya and other departure points in north Africa.
Increasingly, the traffickers appear to have decided that the best way to get the people to Europe is to put to sea and then abandon the boats.
Since the onset of winter they have been using bigger boats than the converted fishing boats and dinghies they previously favoured.