A ship carrying hundreds of migrants was on being towed towards the southern Italian coast as fears grew that the human traffickers operating in the Mediterranean had found a new and ruthlessly effective way of combating the cancellation of Italy’s search and rescue policy, known as Operation Mare Nostrum.
The Sierra Leone-flagged Ezadeen was the second vessel in four days to be abandoned by its crew in rough seas, forcing the Italian authorities to intervene to prevent a disaster, and possibly the loss of many lives. In a statement, the Italian coastguard said three of its officers had taken control of the ship after landing a helicopter on it.
The Ezadeen had been drifting without power about 40 nautical miles off the coast with as many as 450 people on board. “We know that it left from a Turkish port and was abandoned by its crew,” coastguard spokesman Filippo Marini said in an interview with SkyTG24 television. “When we hailed the ship to ask about its status, a migrant woman responded, saying, ‘We are alone and we have no one to help us.’”
It had been put on a collision course for the Italian coast but ran out of fuel, he said. A similar tactic was used by the crew of a ship which, on Tuesday, put out a distress call as it passed the Greek island of Corfu on its way into the Adriatic Sea.
The Ezadeen was secured by rescue teams for towing after several hours of struggling to attach a line, Marini said. Southern Italy is currently in the grip of unusually low temperatures and high winds.
Children and pregnant women were among the migrants – believed to be mostly Syrians – Marini said.
