After a shipwreck off southern Italy in late February left 88 people dead, smugglers still asked survivors to pay for the trip, a witness told a preliminary investigations judge this week.
The people who organized the boat crossing from Turkey to Italy asked survivors to complete their payment for the crossing, regardless of whether they lost family members in the shipwreck, survivor R.K. said in court in southern Italy, on Tuesday (March 21).
He testified at a pre-trial hearing at the Juvenile Court of Catanzaro, as part of judicial proceedings against a 17-year-old suspected smuggler.
The witness said that survivors took pictures of themselves or were photographed by family members -- although court sources said this detail remained unclear in the testimony -- in the hospitality center for asylum seekers (CARA) in the town of Isola di Capo Rizzuto "so traffickers knew who was still alive" after the shipwreck.
He told the court that he was asked to pay €8,300 via transfer.
Smugglers didn't allow migrants to ask for help
R.K. also recounted details about what happened before and during the shipwreck before the court.
He said that the smugglers wanted to arrive in Italy at night to elude security forces. In order to avoid being seen, they stopped in the open sea on February 25 to wait for darkness to set in, despite migrants' protests.
According to R.K., the smugglers also took the migrants' phones once they boarded the boat and handed them back only shortly before they were supposed to reach the shore. He said that they had activated a scrambler to prevent them from calling for help.
The smugglers refused to alert the authorities when they were near the coast, despite the insistence of passengers on board, R.K. said.
Once they were close to the shore, they noticed a few lights, and fearing the presence of security forces, they took a sharp turn, R.K. told the court. The boat, hit by the waves, reportedly tilted to one side and then capsized.
R. K. said he survived by swimming "20 to 30 minutes" to shore, "where there were Carabinieri officers."
Deadliest migrant boat incident off Italy in years
The pre-trial hearing for the 17-year-old suspected smuggler will continue in the next few days in Catanzaro. Another pre-trial hearing could begin in Crotone next week for the other suspected smugglers who are adults.
Prosecutors in Crotone are also investigating rescue operations to understand whether criminally relevant mistakes were made by the authorities.
The shipwreck that took place on February 26 was the deadliest migrant boat incident near Italian shores in recent years. So far, the dead bodies of 88 passengers have been recovered while an undetermined number of passengers remains missing. The body of a man believed to be about 30-years-old was the latest to be recovered on Tuesday (March 21).
Among those who died in the wreck were dozens of children, a Pakistani athlete hoping to find better medical care for her disabled son, and an Afghan female reporter who fled the Taliban with her family.