Tripoli: New details have emerged about the ill-fated Libyan migrants' boat that capsized in the Mediterranean with a survivor saying how the ship careened to one side at the sight of rescuers, leading to its sinking.
There were nearly a thousand people on board the migrants' boat that sank off Libya's coast in the Mediterranean, including hundreds who were locked in the hold by the smugglers, a survivor has reportedly told the prosecutors.
Earlier, it was reported that the boat bound for Italy from Libya, carried 700 migrants. So far 28 have been rescued while 24 have been confirmed dead.
A major search and rescue operation is underway north of Libya where the ship capsized.
According to a news agency report, a Bangladeshi survivor who was flown to Catania hospital, told Italian Prosecutors that there were 950 migrants on board the ill-fated boat.
He added that about 300 people, were trapped behind locked doors as the fishing boat overturned. The survivor said about 200 women and dozens of children were among the passengers who were kept locked by the smugglers.
He also said that as the rescuers approached, the passengers moved to one side of the boat leading to its capsize, the CNN reported.
The capsizing comes amid a wave of migrants trying to leave Libya for Italian shores. They seek to take advantage of calmer seas and warm weather to make the dangerous crossing on smugglers' boats.
Just last week, 400 people were presumed drowned when another boat capsized.
According to the UN, more than 35,000 asylum seekers and migrants have arrived by boat in southern Europe, so far in 2015, and some 1600 have died. In 2014, around 219,000 people crossed the Mediterranean, and 3,500 lives were lost.
On Saturday, Pope Francis joined Italy in pressing the European Union to do more to help the country cope with the soaring numbers of arrivals, which include more than 10,000 in the week ending Saturday.
Italy says it will continue rescuing migrants but demands that the European Union increase assistance to shelter and rescue them. Italy says the EU's border control agency, Frontex, must take a greater role in coordinating rescue operations. Frontex technically is a border patrol operation, not responsible for search and rescue efforts.
Because most migrants want to reach family or other members of their community in northern Europe, Italian governments have pushed for those countries to do more, particularly by taking in the migrants while their requests for asylum or refugee status are examined.
The European Union's commissioner for migration, Dmitris Avramopoulos, says a new policy will be presented in May. He also has called for other EU members to provide more aid to Italy.
