The hopes of another 150 illegal immigrants sunk in the Mediterranean Sea, reports Doaa El-Bey In search of an easy life and a better job in Europe, some 150 people crammed into a fishing vessel big enough for only 40 passengers, at the start of a perilous journey from Tripoli, Libya, to Italy. They met the same fate as hundreds before them when their boat capsised and sunk nearly two weeks ago, leaving only two survivors, one Egyptian and a Bangladeshi. Forty drowned and over 100 are missing. The only Egyptian survivor, Wael Abdel-Mutagali, was rescued by a passing fishing boat and returned to Libya. He said there were some 50 Egyptians from the Nile Delta area on the boat. The rest of the immigrants were from Morocco, Algeria and Bangladesh. Abdel-Mutagali told Egyptian Ambassador to Libya Mohamed Rifaah that he managed to stay afloat for what seemed an eternity until he was spotted. He was later handed to the Libyan authorities which took him to hospital, then to prison. Ayman Mesharafa, deputy ambassador in the Egyptian Embassy in Libya, said the number of missing people and their nationalities could not be all ascertained because the figures were based on only Abdel-Mutagali's testimony. He added that representatives from the Egyptian consulate in Libya were sent to the port of Zuwarah, 100 kilometres from Tripoli, to monitor the rescue operation and try to identify the bodies. The latter task proved difficult because bodies had badly decomposed after a long duration in seawater. "All what we can confirm is that a boat carrying illegal immigrants sank. It is still premature to determine the exact number of immigrant or their nationalities," Mesharafa told Al-Ahram Weekly, adding that identification was made all the more difficult because illegal immigrants sometimes destroy all manner of identification so that their country of destination would not deport them to their country of origin. In August last year, the Egyptian navy picked up 91 would-be immigrants heading to Italy after their boat broke in two on the high seas. In November, more than 20 illegal immigrants drowned when two boats capsised off the Italian coast. A month later, a boat sank off Turkey, killing 50 immigrants, half of whom were Egyptian. The ongoing problem of illegal immigration is likely to remain unresolved until the root problems causing it, poverty and yearning for a better life, are resolved. Thousands of African youths are willing to take the risky trip to Europe for the sake of a more affluent life. Human traffickers capitalise on the desperation of youths who are crammed into boats too small. Abdel-Mutagali said he had met with a human trafficker in Libya who took $2,000 from him to smuggle him to Italy. Mesharafa emphasised that Egyptian officials, including high-ranking officials from the Foreign Ministry, have launched campaigns on TV and in newspapers about the risks of illegal immigration and have sent representatives to villages from which the illegal immigrants hail as part of an awareness programme. However, he said it was not easy to control such misadventures because it is a cross-border crime. "People of different nationalities and countries get involved. Sometimes whole boats sink and we simply do not know anything about them. We do have a list of missing persons who probably died under the sea."
