XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: dia@democrats.com   
      
   Wooops!   
      
   The drowning of 500 Middle Eastern and African migrants in the   
   Mediterranean was no accident, according to survivors of the   
   disaster, who have told an international humanitarian agency   
   smugglers purposely sank their vessel and then laughed as men,   
   women and children slipped below the waves.   
      
   The International Organization for Migration, a Geneva-based   
   international organization with 156 member countries, is probing   
   the claims, which, if true, underscore the cruelty that often   
   accompanies desperation of immigrants seeking a better life in   
   Europe. Witnesses said enraged human traffickers rammed their   
   boat into the crowded vessel carrying the migrants after the   
   travelers refused to transfer to a boat they considered   
   unseaworthy, survivors told IOM.   
      
   Survivors reported the smugglers were "throwing metal bars" at   
   the migrants and "laughing" as they struggled to stay afloat in   
   the water, IOM spokesperson Leonard Doyle told FoxNews.com.   
      
   "If survivors' reports are confirmed, this will be the worst   
   shipwreck of migrants in years, not an accidental tragedy, but   
   the apparent deliberate drowning of migrants by criminal gangs   
   who extort money for their desperate journeys. Their actions are   
   as callous as they are evil," Doyle said in a statement.   
      
   Doyle said his group has so far confirmed 10 survivors -- two   
   currently in Italy, two in Malta and six in Crete, including a   
   toddler, who remains hospitalized in critical condition.   
   Witnesses told the group that about 100 children were on board   
   when the vessel sank on its way from the port of Damietta in   
   Egypt to Italy.   
      
   The migrant boat -- with the Arabic name "Ashor Rezeq" --   
   departed Egypt on Sept. 6. The travelers were forced to transfer   
   vessels several times throughout the journey but eventually   
   refused a smaller boat they deemed unsafe for sea, witnesses   
   said. Their vessel was then rammed by the traffickers' boat just   
   off the coast of Malta. The 500 on board included Syrians,   
   Palestinians, Egyptians and Sudanese.   
      
   Two Palestinian men who survived the shipwreck and were later   
   brought ashore to the town of Pollazzo in Sicily told IOM the   
   smugglers' vessel hit their boat twice on the side, causing the   
   boat to flip.   
      
   "Most of the passengers were young, the majority under 30 years   
   old and there were many families with young children," the men,   
   ages 27 and 33, told IOM, according to Doyle.   
      
   "Migrants had to have bought life jackets themselves before the   
   journey and few had brought them with them. Many of those with   
   life jackets drowned also," the men said, adding that the   
   smugglers did not offer life jackets to any migrants on board.   
      
   Doyle said a young Syrian woman was travelling with her fiancé,   
   who drowned. The woman managed to cling to a round, donut-shaped   
   buoy when she fell into the water and shared it with three   
   children in an attempt to save them.   
      
   Two of the children drowned, Doyle said, but the woman managed   
   to save a 2-year-old girl who is now hospitalized in Crete with   
   kidney failure.   
      
   This could be the deadliest year ever for migrants crossing the   
   Mediterranean Sea.   
      
   In the past week, as many as 700 people who were fleeing Africa   
   for Europe died after two heavily loaded boats were wrecked.   
   That's as many migrants as died during all of last year.   
      
   According to IOM and other officials, it would raise the total   
   number of migrants killed on the Mediterranean this year to   
   about 2,900.   
      
   In addition to the 500 migrants, another 200 are feared dead in   
   the wreck of a second boat that was carrying at least 250   
   African migrants to Europe when it capsized off the Libyan coast.   
      
   With the surge of conflicts in the Mideast and Africa this year,   
   more migrants are attempting the risky voyages across the   
   Mediterranean in hopes of getting to Italy's coastline and   
   islands.   
      
   http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/09/17/iom-investigates-reports-   
   deliberate-drowning-500-migrants-in-   
   mediterranean/?intcmp=obnetwork   
      
       
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)