Liberian Migrants Die in Sicilian Shipwreck

At least 14 people died yesterday after a boat carrying illegal immigrants from Liberia capsized in a storm off the southern coast of Sicily, the latest in a long roll call of victims who have perished in the quest for a better life in Europe.

Another 92 people were rescued by police and coastguards alerted by late night diners in a beachside restaurant who saw the first half-dozen Africans who had managed to swim ashore.

Survivors said there were about 150 people on board the nine-metre Tunisian-registered vessel. As many as 40 people may have died.

About half the survivors were rescued by boat and helicopter after swimming to a rocky island off the town of Porto Empedocle.

The police have arrested an Egyptian man, the only non-Liberian on the boat, and an alleged Liberian accomplice, who are suspected of organising the operation.

Five women and a girl aged about 15 were among the dead.

One of the survivors told investigators that the boat capsized after being blown on to submerged rocks by a sudden squall.

"We waited off the beach for an hour for the storm to pass," he reportedly told magistrates. "Then the wind blew us on to the rocks near the lighthouse and it was hell."

The man, still draped in a blanket against the cold, said the group had been brought from Africa on a larger ship and then transferred at sea on to the smaller vessel for the last leg of the journey.

The coasts of Italy and Spain are two of the favourite entry points for economic migrants attempting to evade border controls and slip secretly into the European Union.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants from Africa, Albania, Turkey, Pakistan and India try their luck every week in rusty and overloaded boats operated by people-smuggling gangs.

The small island of Lampedusa, the Italian territory closest to north Africa, has witnessed floods of immigrants this summer. On Saturday three boats brought 211 people to the embattled tourist island.

The Italian government has sought to stem the tide with a new law that gives the navy the power to stop and search vessels suspected of involvement in people-trafficking, and prescribes fines and prison sentences of up to 15 years on those convicted of involvement in the trade.

The government is also determined to speed up the repatriation process for migrants caught entering the country illegally. More than 75,000 illegal immigrants were expelled last year, a rise of 32% on 2000.

No one knows how many people succeed in getting into Europe or how many more disappear without trace in the attempt.

The bodies of more than 30 victims have been recovered off the coast of southern Italy so far this year.

In June, 40 people were thrown into the sea off the coast of Castro Marina; those unwilling to jump were attacked with knives by their transporters. Four bodies were recovered.

The worst known disaster was in 1996 when more than 200 immigrants lost their lives after a collision in the stretch of sea between Sicily and Malta.

Opposition leaders criticised the government's approach to the problem yesterday, saying that the crackdown on illegal immigration meant that migrants found themselves in the hands of crimal gangs from the moment they decided to leave their country of origin.

"Until now nothing has been done against the mafias which organise the trafficking in human beings," Giuseppe Lumias, a Left Democrat MP, said.

"We have to strike against the mafias and not at the immigrants. Since the centre-right government took power the number of illegal immigrants disembarking has actually increased."