Italian authorities have charged five Egyptian nationals with aiding and abetting clandestine migration as well as death as the result of an additional crime committed. The Egyptians are believed to have smuggled migrants on board a fishing boat that arrived in Sicily on Sunday with 179 migrants and the bodies of five persons presumed to have died from heat and thirst.
Five Egyptians, aged between 21 and 28, are the alleged smugglers of a fishing boat that carried 674 migrants. Of those, 179 migrants arrived in the Sicilian port city of Messina last Sunday (July 24), together with the corpses of five persons.
Italian police apprehended the alleged smugglers a day later. The public prosecutor believes the five Egyptians are responsible for aiding and abetting clandestine migration as well as death as the result of an additional crime committed.
The indictment is based on eyewitness accounts, according to which the migrants were beaten with sticks and belts during the boat crossing. What's more, the deaths were caused by dehydration linked to the extreme heat and the lack of portable water, which was rationed on board.
Beaten for asking for food and water
The 179 migrants and the bodies of the five deceased persons arrived at the Sicilian port city of Messina aboard two Italian coast guard vessels. They were among a group of 674 persons on a fishing boat in the Central Mediterranean when they were rescued. The remaining survivors were transferred to the ports of Catania, Syracuse, and Crotone.
According to police investigations based on eyewitness accounts, the migrants had been held for approximately one month in a so-called connection house on the Libyan coast before being taken on board said fishing boat that sailed toward Italy on the night of July 19.
During the crossing, the crew members abruptly stopped the engines and asked for help with a satellite device they later threw into the water. The migrants reported being beaten on board with sticks and belts, at times only for asking for food and water.
One glass of water for 10 people
According to the public prosecutor's office of Messina, "water and food were rationed in an inhumane way. As many as ten migrants were forced to share a small glass of water."
Due to the intense heat and the lack of drinkable water, many of them "started to feel ill," the survivors reported. "Their fellow travel companions perished due to heat and dehydration, as they had been forced to drink sea water or the water of the engines," the prosecutor's office said.