Boat skipper faces mass murder charge over migrant disaster

Prosecutors believe Tunisian national Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, was responsible for steering mistakes and the reckless overcrowding that led to the horrifying shipwreck off Libya on Sunday.

An composite handout photo from Italian police of Mohammed Ali Malek, left, and Mahmud Bikhit who have been arrested on suspicion of being responsible for causing the loss of about 800 lives when a miShow more

CATANIA, Italy // The captain of a migrant boat that capsized in the Mediterranean’s deadliest disaster in decades was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of causing the deaths of an estimated 800 people.

Prosecutors in the Sicilian city of Catania said they believed Tunisian national Mohammed Ali Malek, 27, was responsible for steering mistakes and the reckless overcrowding that led to the horrifying shipwreck off Libya on Sunday.

Crew member and Syrian national Mahmud Bikhit, 25, was also arrested over the catastrophe, which has evoked chilling comparisons with the slave trade and allegations of callous disregard on the part of European governments.

Mr Malek was held on suspicion of multiple murder, causing a shipwreck and aiding illegal immigration, while Mr Bikhit faces potential charges on the latter count. Both men were due before a judge later on Tuesday.

The victims – including an unknown number of children – will have died in hellish circumstances, with many having been locked in the hold or the middle deck of the 20-metre boat when it keeled over in pitch darkness after colliding with a Portuguese container ship answering its distress call.

The Catania prosecutors said the collision had been caused by steering mistakes by the captain and the panicked movements of the hundreds of passengers.

“On the basis of what has emerged, no blame can be accorded to the crew of the merchant ship which came to rescue and in no way contributed to the fatal event,” they said in a statement.

Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has described the traffickers who packed their human cargo into the boat as akin to 18th-century slave traders.

Meanwhile, UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said the horror at sea had been produced by a “monumental failure of compassion” on the part of European governments who are now under intense pressure to address the humanitarian crisis on their southern shores.

All of the 27 survivors were deeply traumatised, said Carlotta Sami, spokeswoman for the UN high commissioner for refugees.

“They are exhausted, they have nothing left,” she said. “They are in a state of shock, they look completely lost.”

Most of the survivors and the victims appear to have been young men but there were also several children aged between 10 and 12, she added.

“We have not yet been able to ask them about this but it seems certain that many of them will have had friends and family who were lost in the wreck.”

At talks in Luxembourg on Monday, EU ministers agreed on a 10-point plan to double the resources available to maritime border patrol mission Triton. Further measures will be discussed at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday.

However, critics say Triton is woefully inadequate and are demanding the restoration of a much bigger Italian operation, which was suspended last year because of cost constraints.

The survivors, who hailed from Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Somalia, Eritrea and Bangladesh, were all recovering on Tuesday at holding centres near Catania on Sicily’s eastern coast.

Sunday’s disaster was the worst in a series of migrant shipwrecks that have claimed more than 1,700 lives this year – 30 times higher than the same period in 2014 – and nearly 5,000 since the start of last year.

In that time nearly 200,000 migrants have made it to Italy, mostly after being rescued at sea by the Italian navy and coastguard.

* Agence France-Presse