At least 13 migrants die in boat tragedy off Italy

Coastguards have found the bodies of 13 African immigrants aboard a small boat off southern Italy, and survivors said yesterday at least 50 more corpses were dumped at sea during a horrific 16-day voyage.

A spokesman for the Italian coastguards said 15 illegal immigrants, all believed to come from Somalia, were plucked alive late on Sunday from a vessel drifting in international waters southeast of the remote Mediterranean island of Lampedusa.

The gaunt Africans, huddled in blankets, told their rescuers that at least 80 people had boarded the boat on the north African coastline on October 3 and that most of them had died at sea of hunger and cold during their nightmarish odyssey.

"No captain travelled with them and they said that during the voyage they lost their way," the coastguard spokesman said, adding that under normal circumstances it can take less than a day to reach Lampedusa from nearby Tunisia and Libya.

"At the beginning they threw the bodies in the water, but then they didn't even have the strength to do that," he said.

Italian Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu called it a "human tragedy that weighed, above all, on Europe's civil conscience". He also called on African states to do more to halt desperate migrants leaving in search of a better life in the West.

It was the second tragedy involving illegal immigrants off Lampedusa within three days. On Friday, seven Africans, including three children, died before their boat could reach the barren, remote island. Another 25 people survived.

Coastguards on Sunday found bodies stuffed inside the boat' engine room and under the deck. Emaciated survivors begged for help and were whisked to Lampedusa aboard a coastguard launch.

Another launch towed the stricken boat to port with all the remaining corpses still aboard. Once they docked shortly after dawn yesterday, rescuers realised with horror that a woman thought to be dead was still alive.

"She was lying among the bodies and seemed lifeless. It was only after they got to Lampedusa that they saw her move," said the coastguard spokesman. She and five other immigrants were later flown to a hospital in Sicily.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government has enacted tough legislation to crack down on both illegal immigrants and on the people-traffickers, who charge hundreds or thousands of euros to deliver them to Italy's porous shoreline.

The Interior Ministry says it has succeeded in virtually eliminating once-thriving illegal immigration routes from Albania and earlier this year signed an accord with Libya aimed at preventing immigrant boats leaving the north African country.