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STORY: GENEVA / LAMPEDUSA BOAT ACCIDENT
TRT:1.27
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 3 OCTOBER 2013, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des nations
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Ewards, UNHCR Spokesman:
“This is an appalling tragedy that has happened today. It is yet another boat disaster on the Mediterranean. We have a count of at least 90 people dead from the local authorities. Our thoughts right now are with the families and the people affected themselves, but you have to think of the tragedy that lies behind this. Which is that these people, many of them are likely to have been fleeing war, fleeing persecutions, fleeing Human Rights abuses in their own countries. So this is a tremendous tragedy of multiple layers.”
3. Cutaway, UN Flag
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Adrian Ewards, UNHCR Spokesman:
“It is hard to prevent these tragedies. People make this journey: the Mediterranean is a major crossing for both refugees and asylum seekers, or for people who are trying to migrate to Europe. We work with the Italian authorities, the Maltese authorities, in the countries of arrival. We also work elsewhere, but primarily, what we are seeing that the positive action of coast guarding these countries are contributing to lower death and that has been the case until now this year. Tragically what has happened today seems to be a dramatic exception to that. We also work in refugee camps to tell refugees that making these kinds of journeys is dangerous. But, fundamentally, people in desperate circumstances do take desperate measures and hence why people make these desperate journeys.”
5. Wide shot, Flag
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today (3 October) expressed shock at the capsizing of a boat off the coast of the Italian island of Lampedusa which has reportedly led to the death of over 90 African migrants.
Describing the accident as an “appalling accident, the agency’s spokesperson Adrian Edwards said, “you have to think of the tragedy that lies behind this; which is that these people, many of them are likely to have been fleeing war, fleeing persecutions, fleeing Human Rights abuses in their own countries. So this is a tremendous tragedy of multiple layers.”
While noting that the Mediterranean was a major crossing for both refugees and asylum seekers, Edwards said that the agency works with Italian and Maltese authorities in those countries and that the positive action of coast guarding those countries had contributed to lower death and that had been the case until now. He added that “tragically what has happened today seems to be a dramatic exception to that.”
Meanwhile in a news release, High Commissioner António Guterres commended the swift action taken by the Italian Coast Guard to save lives, but had also “expressed his dismay at a rising global phenomenon of migrants and people fleeing conflict or persecution and perishing at sea.”
According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), of the estimated 500 passengers on the boat, believed to be Eritreans, only 147 had been rescued so far. The boat, which originated from Libya, caught fire half a mile from the coast. Media reports suggest there were still some 200 passengers that are unaccounted for.
UNHCR said it is actively engaging with countries in the region to provide effective alternatives for people resorting to taking these dangerous journeys so they do not have to risk their lives.
Today’s incident is the second boat disaster this week off Italy’s coast. Thirteen men drowned off the southern coast of Italy on Monday when they attempted to swim ashore from a foundering vessel.
