Immigrants forced to jump
2005-03-24 21:54
Rome - Six illegal immigrants drowned and another six were rescued by Italian coast guards on Thursday after human traffickers apparently forced them to jump into the sea kilometres from the coast of Sicily.
Authorities in the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo said six bodies, including that of a woman, were found in the sea.
Coast guard launches backed by helicopters were searching for at least three other would-be immigrants.
Authorities believe the immigrants, possibly Chinese or Mongolian nationals, were forced to jump into the sea some 15 nautical miles from the Sicilian coast by human traffickers who feared detection.
"The smugglers made the illegal immigrants jump into the water, giving them life rings to hang on to. We do not know if they forced them but we know that one of the smugglers had a gun," prosecutor Domenico Platania, who opened an investigation, said.
The smugglers apparently pointed at the lights of an oil platform, telling the would-be immigrants that they were looking at the Sicilian coast, authorities said.
Investigators believe that the smugglers are part of a large Chinese organised crime ring that smuggles illegal immigrants to Italy through the island of Malta, Ansa reported.
Authorities were alerted by a Turkish merchant ship that several people were in the sea in the strait that separates the Italian island from the Tunisian coast.
Every year, thousands of would-be refugees try to reach the Italian coasts from north Africa and the Middle East in the hope of a better future in the European Union.
In September, 12 bodies of illegal immigrants were retrieved off the southeastern Sicilian coast.