Italian police are hunting two Maltese men believed to be
responsible for the deaths of at least six would-be illegal
immigrants from Asia, according to the Chinese Embassy in
Italy.
The six died off the south coast of Sicily on Thursday and three
others are still missing after smugglers threw them off a boat,
possibly to evade capture by police, authorities said.
Rescue teams alerted by a passing merchant ship found six
survivors struggling in the water nearly 23 kilometers south of the
Italian island.
The victims are thought to be Chinese, according to local
media.
"So far, we have not received any confirmation [that they are
Chinese] from the Italian side," an official from the embassy told
China Daily yesterday.
He said because the incident coincided with Easter, it would
take one or two more days for the local authorities to release
official confirmation, adding that the embassy has learned that the
survivors are being cared for by local police. Embassy staff cannot
visit survivors until their nationalities have been confirmed.
The survivors said they boarded a boat in Malta for the trip to
Italy but were forced at gunpoint to jump into the sea when they
were still many miles from the coast.
Some of those on board reportedly could not swim. The water was
close to freezing at the time. Later, the Italian coastguard was
alerted by a Turkish merchant ship that several people were in the
sea in the strait that separates Sicily from the Tunisian coast,
according to local media.
An autopsy carried out in Ragusa, Sicily on Friday on one of
those killed showed she actually succumbed to blows to the head
before she was thrown overboard, reported The Times of
Malta.
The Sicilian Office of the Attorney in Modica has opened an
inquiry into the case.
Investigators believe the smugglers are part of a large
organized crime ring based in Asia that smuggles illegal immigrants
to Italy through Malta, the Italian news agency ANSA said.
Rome has asked the Maltese government to look into the matter, a
spokesperson for the Home Affairs Minister told The Times of
Malta.
(Xinhua News Agency March 28, 2005)