Green MPs call for Yioham recovery

Green MPs Arnold Cassola and Tana de Zulueta are the first signatories of a draft law presented to the Italian Parliament which calls for the recovery of the wreck and the building of an inter-faith memorial at Porto Palo in Sicily, to mark the tenth anniversary of the sinking of the Yioham.

The Yioham tragedy is by far the worst accident at sea in the Mediterranean since World War II. On Christmas Eve in 1996, 283 immigrants, most of whom were Pakistanis, Indians and Sri Lankans, drowned near Porto Palo. The immigrants had to be transferred from the Yioham to a ferry registered under the Maltese flag. There was a collision in the rough seas and the ferry carrying the immigrants sank.

The incident was revealed only in 2001 by La Repubblica journalist Giovanni Maria Bellu. Four Italian Nobel laureates - Dario Fo, Rita Levi Montalcini, Carlo Rubia and Renato Dulbecco - called for the recovery and appropriate burial of the immigrants' remains. Cassola and de Zulueta are the first MPs to support their appeal.

"The recovery of the wreck will allow the deceased's relatives to give a proper and dignified burial to the victims of this tragedy, which include not only hundreds of irregular immigrants, but also a small number of Maltese citizens who were on the sunken boat," Dr Cassola said.

"It is important that the Maltese deceased can be given a proper burial. Moreover, the building of a memorial in Porto Palo will serve as a reminder to all of us on the injustices and inequalities which still exist around the world."