Late on Thursday evening,  42 miles from the Italian island of Lampedusa, is where the tragedy struck, as the passengers, all of whom were of North African origin, attempted to travel to the Imbriacola district of Sicily. Among the crowd, a pregnant mother, and a four-month-old baby, who, having died from the cold during the journey, was thrown overboard by a desperate mother who later herself lost her life.
 

When a patrol boat discovered the passengers on the night of the second February, there were seven bodies found in the ship’s hull. Each later taken to a small morgue in the Cala Pisana cemetery, where they will undergo a postmortem examination to determine the exact cause of death. 

 

 It is reported that a man, witnessing the four-month-old being thrown in the sea, jumped into freezing waters in an attempt to recover the child, thereby putting his own life at risk as he battled the waves. 

 

 A far cry from what these passengers must have envisioned when they left Sfax, Tunisia on a six-metre boat at three am on the 28th January, after having reportedly been locked up for months in a safe house in Mahdia. 

 

 Later it was fishermen who, having spotted this boat travelling between Malta and Italy, called authorities for help. However, the location of the boat in Maltese waters meant that it took time for the request to be passed on to the Port Authority of Rome, although once the request was received from Malta, they promptly sent a CP324 patrol boat.

 

 The Mayor of the Pelagie Islands, Filippo Mannino, directly addressed the Prime Minister of Italy in his appeal for intervention, “I address an appeal to the Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni that the government does not leave us alone to manage this terrible tragedy. Help us, in this way we can no longer manage.”

 

 In fact, directly after the migrants were rescued from Maltese waters, the rescue of two other boats, carrying a total of seventy-five people, was carried out by the Guardia di Finanza.

   

  The passengers on board originating from Cameroon, the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Guinea, and Senegal, respectively, and including 14 women, one of whom was pregnant, and also, a minor. 

 

 dh