Lampedusa: death toll grows, survivors in desperately overcrowded camp

In his homily at Monday morning’s Mass in Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis spoke about the Samaritan “who saw and was moved with compassion”, keeping his heart open to humanity and thus bringing himself closer to God.

The importance of truly “seeing” human tragedy, remaining compassionate and rejecting the “globalisation of indifference”, is a theme which Pope Francis has often picked up in relation to the plight of migrants across the world. Most recently, he called for solidarity towards migrants in southern Italy, in the wake of the tragic shipwreck which left hundreds dead when their boat sank last Thursday, just off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. The Italian coastguard continues to retrieve bodies in the sea around Lampedusa, with the official death toll at 194 as of Monday morning.

In an interview with Linda Bordoni at Vatican Radio, Barbara Molinario, who works in the UNCHR’s Italian headquarters in Rome, said that 194 bodies had been recovered, but many more are likely to be found as survivors said most people were travelling deep inside the hull of the ship.

About 1000 refugees are currently staying in Lampedusa’s Centre for First Aid and Welcome. Molinario said the conditions were really not sustainable, because the centre was only intended to accommodate 250 people. She said that most of the refugees not only did not have a bed, but they were also huddled outside with no cover.

"It has been raining, so the conditions are really very bad." she said. She said UNHCR has been asking for the centre to be expanded and developed for several years, because often one boatload carries more people than the centre can accommodate.

She said the residents of the small island were also suffering together with the survivors because of this tragedy. They have held a service to pray for the dead.

Molinario said UNHCR and the Italian authorities are struggling to identify the dead, in order to inform their families. She said: "We have been receiving a lot of phone calls, asking us about their loved ones who were on the boat and haven’t called them back yet.”

Source: Vatican Radio/UNHCR