{"id":78976,"date":"2015-01-03T07:12:07","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T07:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=78976"},"modified":"2015-01-03T07:12:07","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T07:12:07","slug":"abandoned-migrant-ship-reaches-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=78976","title":{"rendered":"Abandoned migrant ship reaches Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"story_continues_1\" class=\"introduction\">A ship abandoned by its crew off Italy with 360 migrants on board has arrived at the Italian port of Corigliano Calabro, the coastguard says.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier, rescuers boarded the Ezadeen after a passenger raised the alarm as it drifted in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n<p>The ship, sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, lost power in rough seas off the south-east coast of Italy.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 796 migrants were rescued from another ship found abandoned without any crew earlier in the week.<\/p>\n<p>Italy&#8217;s coastguard tweeted to say the Ezadeen had arrived into port shortly before 23:00 local time (22:00 GMT).<\/p>\n<p>The coastguard commander in Corigliano Calabro, Francesco Perrotti, told the BBC all the migrants on board were from Syria.<\/p>\n<p>He said they were being taken by bus to other parts of Italy. He described the migrants&#8217; physical condition as relatively good after their three-day ordeal.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier coastguard Cmdr Filippo Marini told reporters that the Ezadeen was towed by an Icelandic ship that is part of the EU Frontex border control mission.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/80033000\/jpg\/_80033391_80033390.jpg\" alt=\"The cargo ship Ezadeen at the port of Corigliano, Italy, 2 January 2015\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">The Ezadeen is a livestock carrier built nearly 50 years ago<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/80033000\/jpg\/_80033387_80033386.jpg\" alt=\"The cargo ship Ezadeen at the port of Corigliano, Italy, 2 January 2015\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">Authorities said there were some 450 migrants on board when it arrived in Italy late on Friday<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/80033000\/jpg\/_80033383_80033382.jpg\" alt=\"Migrant on the Ezadeen in Corigliano, Italy, 2 January 2015\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">A coastguard commander said all were from war-torn Syria<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/80033000\/jpg\/_80033395_80033394.jpg\" alt=\"Migrants rest after disembarking from the Ezadeen, 3 January 2015\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">Once ashore, migrants were given food and water by the Red Cross<\/div>\n<p>Mr Marini added that the 73-metre (240ft) Ezadeen was believed to have set sail from Turkey, although earlier reports suggested it was sailing from Cyprus.<\/p>\n<p>A Frontex spokesperson, Izabella Cooper, said the migrants were victims of smugglers using a different route to the usual one from Libya.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What we are currently witnessing is the opening of a new migratory route where the smugglers buy old scrap cargo vessels, departing from Turkey,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This route is longer and the fees charged by the smugglers about three times higher than the fee charged by the smugglers from Libya.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The alarm was raised in a distress call from one of the migrants using the maritime radio on board, who told the Italian coastguard: &#8220;We&#8217;re without crew, we&#8217;re heading toward the Italian coast and we have no-one to steer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Ezadeen was built nearly 50 years ago and is a livestock carrier. It appears to be registered to a Lebanese company and has come under the control of human traffickers.<\/p>\n<p>The first ship, the Blue Sky M, carrying 796 people, was abandoned and left on autopilot by its crew, believed to be people-traffickers.<\/p>\n<p>Italian coastguards brought it under control and safely docked it at the Italian port of Gallipoli on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Vincent Cochetel, Europe director for UN refugee agency UNHCR, said the latest development was &#8220;part of an ongoing and worrying situation that can no longer be ignored by European governments&#8221;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/80000000\/jpg\/_80000510_025245682-1.jpg\" alt=\"The Blue Sky M cargo ship, carrying an estimated 900 migrants, is seen at the Gallipoli harbour, southern Italy, on 31 December 2014.\" width=\"624\" height=\"351\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">The first ship, the Blue Sky M, was spotted floating adrift near the coast of Corfu on Tuesday<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/news.bbcimg.co.uk\/media\/images\/79994000\/jpg\/_79994720_ship3.jpg\" alt=\"People wait on the dock as the ship comes into Gallipoli\" width=\"624\" height=\"411\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"caption full-width\">Medics were on hand to treat migrants as they disembarked from the Blue Sky M on Wednesday<\/div>\n<p>Greek officials were first alerted to the Blue Sky when it was near Corfu after a distress call from a man on board asking for food, water and blankets.<\/p>\n<p>It was reportedly heading for the port of Rijeka in Croatia from Turkey.<\/p>\n<p>According to tracking website MarineTraffic, the ship abruptly changed direction south of Othonoi on Tuesday morning, heading west towards Italy.<\/p>\n<p>Italy has had to deal with a massive surge in migrants &#8211; many of them from the Middle East and the Horn of Africa &#8211; setting off on boats with hopes of reaching Europe.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A ship abandoned by its crew off Italy with 360 migrants on board has arrived at the Italian port of Corigliano Calabro, the coastguard says. Earlier, rescuers boarded the Ezadeen after a passenger raised the alarm as it drifted in the Mediterranean. The ship, sailing under the flag of Sierra Leone, lost power in rough [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":78977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-78976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/78977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}