Excerpt: "Refugees fleeing wars and conflict in Syria, Gaza and Africa know the journey in smugglers' boats across the Mediterranean is fraught with perils. Add now the risk of mass murder by their traffickers."
(photo: unknown)
Murder in the Mediterranean
19 September 14
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efugees fleeing wars and conflict in Syria, Gaza and Africa know the journey in smugglers’ boats across the Mediterranean is fraught with perils. Add now the risk of mass murder by their traffickers.
According to the International Organization for Migration, citing testimony from Palestinian survivors, last week in waters near Malta smugglers deliberately rammed a boat carrying some 500 refugees who refused a transfer to a smaller boat they felt was not safe. The smugglers reportedly laughed as terrified men, women and children sank into the sea. Only nine people are thought to have survived.
This has been a deadly year for migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Roughly 130,000 people have made the journey to Europe, more than double the 60,000 who did so in 2013. But more than 2,800 have died in shipwrecks or in transit this year, the migration agency says, a fourfold increase over last year.
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