A boat carrying some 300 irregular immigrants capsized at the weekend after it was allegedly rammed by human smugglers, according to survivors who were brought to Malta.

Army sources said that the version recounted by the three survivors who arrived on the island on Sunday after being rescued by a commercial vessel tallied with similar accounts given by rescued migrants in Greece and Italy.

If true, this was not an accident but a mass murder, perpetrated by criminals without scruples or any respect for human life

The incident happened around 300 nautical miles southeast of Malta, close to Crete, and unfolded over Friday and Saturday when merchant ships were involved in the rescue of the 10 survivors.

Some of the rescued migrants said they had been ordered by smugglers to transfer to a smaller boat while out at sea because of what was claimed to be engine trouble.

When they refused to budge, the smugglers, who were on a different boat, allegedly rammed the vessel until it capsized.

The International Organisation for Migration yesterday said that accounts given by two survivors from the same tragedy, who had been taken to Italy, put the number of immigrants on the boat at 500.

“If this story, which police are investigating, is true, it would be the worst shipwreck in years... not an accident but a mass murder, perpetrated by criminals without scruples or any respect for human life,”the IOM said in a statement.

The Italian police are investigating these claims but other versions said that the number of migrants on the boat was only 30 when it capsized.

Army sources said the amount of corpses that were recovered and the lack of significant wreckage seemed to suggest that the tragedy was not as big as the survivors were making out.

However, past experience has shown that when large boats capsize it is not abnormal for many people trapped inside the lower decks to go down with it, leaving no trace.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com