2nd migrant-packed ship abandoned near Italy
ROME -- About 450 migrants reached the shores of Italy Friday night on board a cargo ship that had been abandoned by smugglers, leaving the vessel navigating without a crew, authorities said.
Italian authorities lowered engineers and electricians onto the wave-tossed Ezadeen by helicopter to secure it, and the Icelandic Coast Guard, part of a new European patrol force to aid migrants at sea, towed the ship to the Italian port of Corigliano late Friday night.
A large tent was set up at the dock so that the migrants could stop for food and water. Sky TG24 TV said that after their documents are checked, they will be sent to shelters. Their requests for asylum will be evaluated.
Children and pregnant women were among the migrants, most of whom were believed to be from war-ravaged Syria, Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said. The Sierra Leone-flagged ship apparently set sail from Turkey, he said.
An Italian Coast Guard patrol plane had spotted the 66-meter Ezadeen on Thursday about 90 miles east of Italy's Calabria region and contacted it to see if it needed assistance.
"There was no crew, and one migrant, a woman, took the call," Marini said. "She said: 'We are alone. Please help us. We are in danger.'"
The Ezadeen is the second cargo ship full of migrants to be abandoned while still sailing this week. The Italian Coast Guard lowered personnel onto a Moldovan-flagged cargo vessel early Wednesday morning so they could take control of the ship, which was only a few miles from crashing into the Italian coast with almost 1,000 migrants on board.
More than 170,000 migrants were intercepted or needed rescue by Italian navy, coast guard and air force patrols last year. This apparently new technique by smugglers of abandoning a ship after setting it on a crash course complicates rescue efforts, Marini told Italian state radio, "but the important thing is there are lives to be saved."
In October 2013, a fishing vessel crammed with almost 400 would-be migrants caught fire and capsized near the town of Lampedusa. A Somali man believed to be the organizer of the ill-fated smuggling voyage was arrested shortly after the tragedy, which left more than 365 people dead.