Thread by @NickWhithorn

6.40 a.m. on 3 October 2013. A 66 foot long wooden fishing boat is approaching the island of Lampedusa. It left the Libyan port of Misrata on 1 October. It is packed with people (probably 543) below and above deck. Most of them are from Eritrea, a few from Ethiopia [Thread] >> 1

They have been travelling for months, paying $600 to get out of Eritrea, $800 to get to Khartoum, another $800 to cross the Sahara into Libya and, finally, $1,600 to cross the Mediterranean on what, for many of them, would become their coffin >> 2

Many Eritreans flee their country, not just because of poverty. It is a dictatorship in which young men are called up for military service & never know how long it will last. It could even be as much as 10 years. Once it is over, they can be called up again >> 3

It is impossible to leave the country legally. As much as 10% of Eritrea's population have fled the country. When they cross into Sudan, many are kidnapped & held hostage until their family pays a ransom allowing them to continue their journey. The women are routinely raped >> 4

Now, they're just half a mile from the port of Lampedusa, the southernmost strip of land in Europe, just half a mile from what they & their families back home hope will be a new life of freedom & dignity. At that point the overworked engine of the dilapidated boat gives out >> 5

It's just before sunrise but shadowy outlines of boats moored near shore can be seen. Faced with the risk of drifting onto rocks, somebody, possibly the 'Captain', possibly one of the migrants, depending on the version, sets fire to a blanket in an attempt to draw attention >> 6

This is a bad idea at the best of times on a wooden boat but desperation after months of perilous existence, being at sea for two days, with barely room to move, and now being so close to safety doesn't favour clear thinking. In this case it is to prove fatal >> 7

The wooden deck of the fishing boat has had fuel spilt on it & this ignites. People panic, instinctively moving away from the flames. This sudden weight shift to one side on a grossly overloaded boat inevitably causes it to capsize. For those below deck there is no escape >> 8

Hundreds of others are hurled into the sea. The water is covered by a film of fuel from the boat. Their cries & the arrival of daylight over the terrible scene make people ashore aware of their plight. The first rescuers to arrive on the scene are tourists on pleasure craft >> 9

Then, local fishing boats join the rescue efforts. As fate would have it, the Coast Guard were still dealing with 463 Syrians who had been saved from another boat in distress just after midnight and so were slow to react to this new drama >> 10

In the immediate aftermath of the sinking, 194 bodies were recovered from the sea & shoreline. On 9 October divers were able to access the wreck at a depth of 47 metres (photo). It took them two days to recover 108 bodies of people trapped below deck when the boat capsized >> 11

Over the following days, further bodies are recovered during search operations until the total reaches 368, including 48 children, the youngest just two years old. A hangar at the island's airport is used to hold the coffins (photo) >> 12

There are 155 survivors. On the basis of survivors' stories, about 20 people are missing whose bodies will never be found. Identification of bodies is difficult & only just over 100 are formally identified. They are buried in Agrigento & numerous other Sicilian cemeteries >> 13

Throughout the phases of this rescue, indeed almost every rescue carried out in 27 years from 1992 to 2019, a constant presence is that of Pietro Bartolo (photo), the doctor responsible for frontline medical services on Lampedusa >> 14

On this occasion, he worked 4 days flat out despite having suffered a mild stroke just a month before. As well as checking the conditions of migrants arriving on this tiny outcrop in the Mediterranean (somewhere between 400k & 500k), Bartolo also certifies the many deaths >> 15

And here, perhaps, is the only happy ending to come out of this tragedy. While checking the corpses laid out in body bags on the jetty at the island's port (photo), Bartolo feels, or rather senses, the faintest hint of a pulse in one of them >> 16

That pulse belongs to Kebrat, who survived, recovered & now lives in Sweden. In the photo below she is reunited with Bartolo at the European Parliament in Brussels in February 2020. After retiring from his work as a doctor, Bartolo was elected as an MEP for Sicily in 2019// ends