Das ägyptische Gesundheitsministerium gibt – laut Nachrichtenagentur ANSA – Zahlen zur Schiffskatastrophe am 21.09.2016 vor der ägyptischen Küste bei Kafr al-Sheikh bekannt: 29 Tote wurden geborgen, mindestens 150 Boat-people wurden gerettet und angesichts von 600 Personen an Bord sind insgesamt über 400 Bootsflüchtlinge ertrunken.
Quelle: ANSA
Migranti: naufragio in Egitto
‚Barcone con 300-600 persone colato a picco al largo di Rosetta‘
„Sono almeno 29 i corpi dei migranti annegati e recuperati fino ad ora nel naufragio avvenuto davanti alle coste settentrionali dell’Egitto“. Lo ha reso noto il ministero della Salute egiziano alla tv di Stato. „Cinque migranti sono stati ricoverati in ospedale“. L’agenzia di stampa egiziana Mena ha parlato di „600 persone a bordo“ del barcone affondato e che sono in corso le operazioni di recupero. La Mena ha anche riferito che „almeno 150 persone sono state tratte in salvo“.
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Quelle: The Guardian
Officials in Egypt say at least 43 people are dead and 150 have been rescued as search teams continue to hunt for survivors
Dozens of people have died and officials fear hundreds more have been lost at sea after a boat carrying 600 migrants capsized off the north Egyptian coast, as world leaders gathered at a summit in New York to discuss the refugee crisis.
Rescuers have brought more than 150 people ashore and recovered 43 bodies, including several women and a child, and hundreds more are missing, according to local officials and news agencies said.
“We are deeply concerned at reports that hundreds of people may be missing at sea,” said Matthew Saltmarsh, spokesman for the United Nation’s refugee agency, UNHCR.
“Events like this highlight the importance of rescue operations as part of the response to the movement of refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean and the need for real, safer alternatives for people needing international protection.”
Like most boats used for human trafficking, the ship that sank not far off the Egyptian coast appeared to have been dangerously overloaded, security officials said.
Smugglers operating from Egypt often use old fishing boats for the long journey to Italy. Manypassengers are crammed below deck, with little chance of surviving if the boat sinks.
“Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit. The boat tilted and the migrants fell into the water,” a senior security official in northern Beheira province told Reuters.
He said the dead were mostly Egyptian, Sudanese, Eritrean and Somali nationals. Relatives of missing Egyptians gathered at a coastguard post to wait for news within hours of the tragedy.
“I am not going to leave until I see Mohamed,” Ratiba Ghonim told Reuters, as she mourned her 16-year-old brother. “It is his destiny to leave yesterday and come back dead today. They still haven’t pulled his body out of the water.”
The tragedy is part of a growing human trafficking problem out of the country. Neighbouring Libya is still the starting point for most efforts to reach Italy by boat from north Africa but, after years of lawless chaos in the region, a rising number of people are setting out from Egypt instead.
In the first seven months of this year, Italian data showed that the number of migrants who reached the country by boat from Egypt was nearly 70% higher than the same period of last year. Arrivals from Libya fell slightly.
A safer embarkation point has not made the journey itself any less perilous. Thousands of people have lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean, with nearly 3,000 dead or missing in the first eight months of this year, according to UN data.
The deadliest month was May, when hundreds of people died in three separate incidents that overwhelmed rescuers. In June, more than 300 migrants who had set off from Egypt died when their boat capsized near Crete.
Rescue services are patchy, a mix of privately funded operations and an EU anti-smuggling mission that helps out with rescues when needed, but is not officially assigned to search and rescue operations.
Charities have warned that the Mediterranean is becoming a “mass grave” as Europe looks away from tragedy.
Crossings from Turkey to Greece fell dramatically after an EU-Turkey pact earlier this year, that aimed to deter prospective migrants by promising the deportation of most people arriving through that route.
Several thousand people are still risking that voyage each month and experts say only the prospect of safe and effective resettlement schemes will stem the flow of people risking their lives.
At the summit in New York this week, the US president, Barack Obama, announced that a coalition of more than 30 countries had agreed to concrete measures to tackle the refugee crisis.
They include a commitment to double resettlement places for refugees, increase humanitarian aid for refugees by $4.5bn, provide education to 1 million more refugee children and potentially improve access to legal work for another million adults.
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siehe auch: ahramonline
Death toll in migrant boat disaster off Egyptian coast rises to 42
Egypt’s health ministry announced on Wednesday evening that the death toll in the capsizing of a boat carrying migrants off Egypt’s Mediterranean port city of Rosetta has reached 42.
According to the state-owned MENA news agency, the boat was carrying 600 migrants.
Reuters reported that the migrants originated from Syria, Egypt and other African countries.
According to initial investigations conducted by police in the Nile Delta’s Beheira governorate, the boat capsized after it sailed from Kafr El-Sheikh’s Meghizal area.
The afflicted boat’s planned destination is still unknown.
Wednesday’s incident comes two days after Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said at a UN meeting that „illegal immigration“ should be at the top of international priorities.
He affirmed that Egypt will combat illegal immigration through updating already existing anti-human trafficking legislation, underlining that the government is currently working on finalising legalisation to combat illegal emigration from the country.
According to El-Sisi, Egypt currently hosts five million refugees of different nationalities.
The UNHCR website’s profile on Egypt says that the country is hosting 261,741 registered refugees, mostly from Sudan, Syria and Libya, with the number of unregistered refugees believed to be much higher.
In recent years, thousands of refugees and migrants have attempted to cross the Mediterranean in search of better jobs and opportunities. Hundreds have been arrested in Egypt by naval forces for attempting to migrate illegally.
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siehe auch: Independent
A refugee boat carrying 600 people bound for Europe has capsized off the coast of Egypt, killing at least 29
Local officials said 150 of the 600 had been rescued, describing it as one of the largest operations off Egypt’s coast in the Mediterranean refugee crisis so far. Of the dead, 18 were men, 10 were women, and one was a child.
“An illegal migration boat has capsized off the coast of Kafr al-Sheikh carrying 600 migrants in the largest illegal migration operation through the Kafr al-Sheikh coast so far,” state news agency MENA quoted a local official as saying.
“Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit. The boat tilted and the migrants fell into the water,” a senior security official in Beheira province, told Reuters.
The boat was carrying Egyptian, Syrian, and African migrants, security sources said. It was not immediately clear what destination the boat had been trying to reach, but it is believed to be Italy.
The sinking came as world leaders met for a special summit on the refugee crisis in New York.
US President Barack Obama, who called the Leaders Summit on Refugees, said the crisis was “one of the most urgent tests of our time”.
“This crisis is a test of our common humanity – whether we give in to suspicion and fear and build walls, or whether we see ourselves in another,” he said. “Those girls being trafficked and tortured, they could be our daughters. That little boy on the beach could be our son or our grandson. We cannot avert our eyes or turn our backs.”
More than 200,000 people have attempted to cross the Mediterranean from Egypt, Libya and Turkey so far this year, the International Organisation for Migration says.
More than 2,800 deaths were recorded
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siehe auch: Al Jazeera
Scores drown after boat capsizes off Egypt’s coast
At least 43 people die and 154 rescued after boat carrying hundreds of refugees sinks off the coast of Kafr al-Sheikh.
At least 43 people have died and 154 have been rescued after a boat carrying hundreds of refugees capsized off Egypt’s coast.
State news agency MENA reported on Wednesday that the boat, believed to be carrying around 600 people, capsized off the coast of Kafr al-Sheikh governorate, about 140km north of Cairo.
Officials said 31 bodies had been recovered – 20 men, 10 women and one child. A correspondent for Reuters news agency later saw a fishing boat bring in 12 more bodies, bringing the total to 43.
At least 154 people had been saved, according to officials, who said that search teams were looking for more survivors.
„Initial information indicates that the boat sank because it was carrying more people than its limit. The boat tilted and the migrants fell into the water,“ a senior security official told Reuters.
The boat was carrying Egyptians, Syrians and people from African countries, security sources told Reuters.
Mohamed Nasrawy, an Egyptian fisherman, said that he knew seven people on the shipwrecked vessel, two of whom were still missing.
„Tonight more people are going to set sail,“ he told Reuters.
„The poverty that they are living in is what is pushing them. Although we are not Europeans, they take good care of people, while our country doesn’t.“
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said all resources possible would be directed into the rescue mission and that those responsible had to be brought to justice.
It was not immediately clear where the boat was headed, though some security sources said they believed it was going to Italy.
More and more people have been trying to cross to Italy from the North African coastline in recent months as the weather improves, particularly from Libya, where people-traffickers operate with relative impunity, but also from Egypt.
Some 206,400 refugees have crossed the Mediterranean this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.
More than 2,800 deaths have been recorded between January and June this year, against 1,838 during the period last year.