{"id":110177,"date":"2015-04-21T06:55:44","date_gmt":"2015-04-21T06:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=110177"},"modified":"2015-04-21T06:55:44","modified_gmt":"2015-04-21T06:55:44","slug":"italy-arrests-two-over-migrant-boat-sinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/04\/italy-arrests-two-over-migrant-boat-sinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Italy arrests two over migrant boat sinking"},"content":{"rendered":"
The captain and a crew member of a boat that capsized off Libya on Sunday, killing hundreds of migrants, have been arrested, Italian officials say.<\/p>\n
The two, held on suspicion of people trafficking, were among 27 survivors who arrived in Sicily late on Monday.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”IAqU9Bl9FX61sXO4Kcti692XFxFep0tI”]The arrests come after the EU set out a package of measures to try to ease the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean.<\/p>\n
Search-and-rescue operations will be stepped up, and there will be a campaign to destroy traffickers’ boats.<\/p>\n
Italian Infrastructure Minister Graziano Delrio said the prosecutor of Catania in Sicily, Giovanni Salvi, had ordered the arrests of the two men who had arrived in the port on a coastguard vessel.<\/p>\n
Other officials said the pair were the Tunisian captain of the migrant boat and his Syrian first mate.<\/p>\n
“Prosecutor Salvi has made two arrests this evening of persons involved; that shows Italian justice is working,” Mr Delrio told reporters in Catania.<\/p>\n
A homicide investigation has been opened into the disaster, he added.<\/p>\n
After speaking to the survivors, the UN refugee agency said that about 800 people died in Sunday’s disaster. Earlier accounts had put the death toll at about 700.<\/p>\n
“There were a little over 800 people on board, including children aged between 10 and 12,” said Carlotta Sami, of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Italy.<\/p>\n
“There were Syrians, about 150 Eritreans, Somalians… They had left Tripoli at about 8am on Saturday.”<\/p>\n
Mr Salvi said hundreds of passengers had been locked below deck and hundreds more were crammed on to its upper deck.<\/p>\n