UN experts have criticised Italy over the deaths of 200 migrants aboard a vessel that capsized in the Mediterranean Sea in 2013.
Rome failed to act quickly to distress calls from the sinking boat, the UN's Human Rights Committee said.
Italy had a naval vessel in the area and for hours ignored the increasingly desperate phone calls from the migrants, the committee said, in a decision published on Wednesday.
In a particularly harrowing aspect of the tragedy, an Italian official told the migrants they were not within Italy’s rescue zone, offered them the phone number of Maltese rescue teams and urged them to call Malta.
“The accident happened in the international waters within the Maltese search and rescue zone but the location was indeed closest to Italy and to one of its naval ships,” committee member Helene Tigroudja said in a statement.
“Had the Italian authorities immediately directed its naval ship and coastguard boats after the distress calls, the rescue would have reached the vessel at the latest two hours before it sank.”
The boat had set out from Zuwarah, a Libyan fishing port about 117km west of the capital Tripoli, at around 1am on October 11, 2013. It was carrying about 400 people, who had mostly fled war-torn Syria.
The fishing vessel was fired on by a boat flying a Berber flag, while in international waters a few hours later, 113km south of the Italian island of Lampedusa and 218km south of Malta.
It began taking on water.
The migrants on board made several calls to the Italian phone number for emergencies at sea, but were eventually told after 1pm they were in the Maltese search and rescue zone.
After desperate calls to the Maltese authorities, a Maltese patrol boat arrived at 5.50pm. The migrant vessel had already capsized. Malta requested urgent Italian help. The ITS Libra navy ship, which was nearby, was not instructed to attend the rescue until after 6pm.
As a result of the delays, more than 200 people, including 60 children, drowned.
Three Syrians and a Palestinian, who survived the sinking but lost relatives in the tragedy, brought a joint complaint before the UN committee, a panel of 18 independent monitors of a human rights covenant.
“Even though the sinking vessel was not located in Italy’s search and rescue zone, the Italian authority had a duty to support the search and rescue mission to save the lives of the migrants,” said Ms Tigroudja.
“Italy’s delayed action had a direct impact on the loss of hundreds of lives.”
Separately, the UN refugee agency on Wednesday warned more migrants have been risking Mediterranean crossings from North Africa in search of better lives in Europedis.
The agency described worsening crises in the turbulent Sahel and in the East and Horn of Africa leading more sea arrivals to the Canary Islands and some 1,064 deaths recorded in the Central and Western Mediterranean last year.
Vincent Cochetel, the UNHCR’s envoy for the crisis, said migrants “flee violence and persecution” only to then experience “brutality and abuses” en route to the North African coast. He called for $100 million in extra funding to protect them.
“Many fall prey to traffickers and smugglers and are abused, extorted, raped, and sometimes killed or left to die,” said Mr Cochetel.
“It is critical that they receive life-saving support and protection in the countries to which they initially flee.”
