MALTA – Two young survivors of a shipwreck in the Mediterranean have reported that their boat, carrying around 500 migrants, was deliberately sunk by traffickers last week.

The IOM, (International Organisation for Migration) has taken witness statements from the two boys and police are currently investigating. If confirmed the incident would be, according to the IOM “the worst shipwreck in recent years, because this wasn’t an accident, but a mass-murder, perpetrated by criminals with no regard for human life.”

The two survivors are both Palestinian, having travelled to Egypt at the beginning of September. They were rescued 300 miles off the coast of Malta by the freighter ‘Pegasus’ and arrived in Pozzallo, Sicily, on Saturday. According to them the boat left the port of Damietta, in Egypt, Sep. 6, carrying around 500 people of Egyptian, Syrian, Palestinian and Sudanese nationality. Amongst them were many families and unaccompanied children.

During the voyage last Wednesday the traffickers attempted to force the group to switch into a smaller boat. Realising the danger of the situation, the migrants resisted and a fight broke out. The traffickers panicked and hit the main vessel with the smaller boat, causing it to sink.

Many attempted to cling on to wreckage, with one of the survivors holding onto a buoy with seven other people, however as time passed the others could no longer manage. The last person to remain alongside the survivor was a young Egyptian boy, who said that he had left home in order to earn money to send back for the care of his ill father.

After a day and a half clinging to the buoy, the Palestinian boy was rescued by sailors from the boat “Pegasus” together with the other survivor who had managed to keep afloat due to his lifejacket.

This incident, coming at the same time as a shipwreck off Libya killed around 200 immigrants over the weekend, and another wreck near the Egyptian coast, means that over 700 people have been killed on the sea in the last few days.

The IOM said in a statement “the only way to remove the power of these criminal organisations is to begin to open legal channels into Europe for these people, men, women and children, who flee their country looking for protection.”