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Indian ‘Malta Boat Tragedy’ victims’ families to seek compensation

Nearly five years after a number of distraught South Asian illegal immigrants struggled to convince the Italian authorities that 283 of their companions had been killed in a collision in international waters between Malta and Sicily, the truth of their tale is only now emerging.

The press from Indian and other Asian countries have labelled the incident "The Malta Boat Tragedy."

In the latest development, the families of the 170-odd victims from India finally appear to now have some hope of receiving some form of compensation for the incident and are exploring ways to represent themselves at the ongoing trial in Italy.

Indian Embassy officials from Rome have approached lawyers in the Sicilian town of Siracusa to seek their advice as to whether the tragedy victims’ families could file a suit for compensation through their representative body, the Malta Boat Tragedy Probe Mission.

One Sicilian lawyer has reportedly expressed his willingness to defend victims - against payment of 20 per cent of the compensation. Other lawyers have indicated that the defendants can apply to the Italian state for legal aid and victims’ families can insert claims for compensation in the ongoing criminal suit.

The sunken vessel was an 18 metre wooden fishing boat that had formerly been used by the Royal Air Force for search and rescue missions.

The boat has now taken on another role, that of a watery coffin for the ill-fated clandestines and their dreams of starting a new life in Europe.

This Maltese boat had left Malta amid rough seas and was under the command of a Maltese, Marcel Barbara, and two Greeks – one of whom is married to a Maltese national.

It is thought that the Maltese boat was to run shuttle trips carrying groups of illegal immigrants to a Sicilian cove.

However, the boat is believed to have been overloaded by the unscrupulous seamen who had packed far too many youths into a ship’s hold - mainly from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The UK’s Independent reports that the story began on Christmas night 1996 when some 450 would-be immigrants on board a rusting ship, the Yiohan, were transferred to a smaller Maltese ferry boat that would carry them to Sicily. However, in heavy seas the two vessels collided and the ferry sank. Only 29 of the passengers were saved.

The immigrant traffickers then headed for Greece, swiftly dumped the human cargo of 29 at a Greek port and disappeared.

The Italian daily, La Repubblica, late last week published what it describes as pictures, taken at a depth of 108 metres, of the sunken ship and bodies of illegal immigrants who had drowned in the incident.

Several of the photos showed bodies half-buried under the sand or trapped inside the ship.

According to La Repubblica, in the weeks after the accident dead bodies floated up in Portopalo, but the fishermen who found them refused to hand them over to police and threw them back into the sea.

The newspaper quoted several locals as saying the fishermen didn't want to waste time reporting their catches to the police.

One fisherman told La Repubblica, "I picked it up and heard a thump, the head had fallen off the neck." he recalled. "I closed my eyes and heaved it overboard, then I gathered up the head and threw that back too."

A local politician, priest and historian confirmed that many fishermen had had similar experiences.

"It was hard, but in a certain way inevitable," explained the village deputy mayor. "The fishermen couldn't afford the long times bureaucracy takes."

The immigrants said they were charged between £3,500 and £5,600 sterling for their voyage.