Divers carrying out the gruesome job of pulling dozens of bodies from a packed migrant ship that sank near the Italian island of Lampedusa have been buoyed by the gift of rosaries blessed by Pope Francis.
Working in difficult conditions and poor visibility, about 50 divers are
taking turns to enter the vessel resting on the seabed at a depth of
154 feet. They slip in through a window to try to pull up the bodies
that are still in the hold of the ship.
The divers have spoken of a horrific site of a pile of dozens of tangled
bodies of men, women and children who were trapped in the hold. One
diver told reporters "All those bodies packed into the wreck, almost all
with staring eyes and their arms raised, as if they were calling for
help"
The search for survivors at first and then bodies has continued ever
since the first alarm was given by fishermen Thursday morning. The
fishermen spoke of hearing sounds that they believed to be seagulls,
but then realized they were coming from hundreds of people -- mostly
Eritreans and Somalis -- screaming for help in the water.
Other fishermen spoke of the difficulties of rescuing so many people who
were exhausted from being in the water and whose bodies were slippery
from fuel in the water.
The ship was believed to be packed with 500 people. Only 155 survived
the arduous journey and over 250 bodies have been found so far.
Each of the divers, according to tweets from the Vatican daily paper, is
carrying a rosary which has been blessed by Pope Francis, seen as sort
of a blessing to the victims and the site.
And to show his concern and
closeness to survivors of the tragedy, the pope dispatched a
representative to the island this weekend and has promised funds for the
survivors.
Pope Francis chose to visit the island in July on his first trip outside
of Rome since his election in solidarity with the tens of thousands of
people who brave the sea in rickety vessels to make the dangerous
crossing from African shores.
He declared a "day of tears" for victims of the shipwreck while on his
first trip to the town of Assisi, birthplace of his namesake, St.
Francis of Assisi and blurted out "The word disgrace comes to me. It is a
disgrace!" while addressing an audience of conference participants when
news broke of the tragedy the day before.
More politicians will descend on the tiny island, the closest Italian
island to North African shores
Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta with Italy's deputy prime minister
and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano will accompany European Commission
President José Manuel Barroso on his visit to Lampedusa Wednesday.
Italy has appealed to the 28-member nations of the EU to help with the
problem and increase resources for sea patrols across the Mediterranean
to help prevent further migrant tragedies.
Calls have been made for a
united search and rescue operation across the Mediterranean from Cyprus
to Spain. Talks about how to patrol the seas and coordinate asylum
seekers and migrant movements across Europe are expected to dominate
today's meetings in Luxembourg.
The survivors who are still gathered in an over-crowded holding center
on the island staged a protest this morning as they want to leave the
island and demand better living conditions.
Prosecutors today have ordered the detention of a 35-year-old Tunisian
man, Kaled Bensalam, who is suspected of being the captain of the ship.
He faces possible charges of multiple homicide, among others. Many
survivors have testified that he was the man in charge of the ill-fated
crossing.
In the meantime, before the temperate weather conditions come to an end
and crossings become problematic, migrants continue to land on Italy's
southern shores.
Over 500 arrived this weekend and about 263 migrants
landed in the Sicilian port of Catania early this morning after they
were rescued from a merchant boat flying a Panama flag 60 miles off the
coast of Siracusa, Sicily.
The migrants, most of them Syrian and
Palestinian nationals, included 63 women and 79 minors.
The United Nations estimates that more than 20,000 migrants trying to
reach Europe have drowned in the Mediterranean in the past 25 years.