A decade after Lampedusa boat tragedy, Mediterranean remains world's deadliest migrant route
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As record numbers of migrants continue to arrive on the small Italian island of Lampedusa, FRANCE 24 looks back at the shipwreck of 2013, which saw 368 people drown off the island. Our reporters met a witness to the tragedy, a survivor and the island's doctor who registered the deaths. All of them want to put an end to these shipwrecks, which have made the Mediterranean the deadliest migrant route in the world.
On October 3, 2013, an overcrowded trawler carrying more than 500 migrants sank off the Italian island of Lampedusa. It had left the Libyan capital Tripoli two days earlier. Some 368 people, mostly from Ethiopia and Eritrea, lost their lives.
At the time, the shipwreck was the first in the Mediterranean on such a huge scale. The whole of Europe was left in shock as European leaders pledged that such a tragedy would never happen again. But those promises were not kept and even deadlier shipwrecks have since taken place.
Ten years on, migrants continue to arrive on the island. Survivors of the 2013 shipwreck, who were rescued, speak of their trauma. The situation on Lampedusa is as critical as ever. The island's only reception centre regularly exceeds its capacity after each new arrival of migrants. As for Europe, it is struggling to find solutions to the influx. FRANCE 24's Natalia Mendoza, Danilo Arnone and Marie Pannetrat report.
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