[ 2011-05-09 ]

African refugees ‘left to die by Nato warships’
A priest has accused Nato warships of leaving a
boatload of African refugees to die as they
drifted for two weeks in the Mediterranean.

Father Moses Zerai, an Eritrean priest who runs a
refugee rights organisation called Habeshia, in
Rome, said 61 of the 71 people on board perished
after leaving Libya and two more, who were washed
back ashore, later died in Libyan prisons.

He said that a helicopter had delivered water to
the boat but then abandoned it, and the vessel had
been ignored by several warships.

“These people are dead because someone decided
not to help them,” Father Zerai said.

On his blog, he reported that when the boat left
Tripoli on March 25 it was carrying 47 Ethiopians,
seven Eritreans, seven Nigerians, six Ghanaians,
and five Sudanese people.

Father Zerai said he had spoken to a survivor
whose wife died because of a lack of food and
water.

“Their boat stopped because the fuel ran out.
The migrant who was at the helm, a boy from Ghana,
did not even know how to use the GPS on his
telephone. He asked for help.

“He tried to speak with the Italian Coast Guard
but they didn’t understand each other,” he
wrote.

Source - The Times(UK)

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