The Lampedusa shipwreck tragedy

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2023

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

On 3 October 2013, a fishing boat taking more than 500 migrants from Libya sank 800 metres off the coast of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island. It was one of the worst migrant shipwrecks on the Mediterranean Sea. As it happened so close to the shore, hundreds of dead bodies were recovered and their coffins were put on show for the world to see. The tragedy led to a joint European effort to tackle the migrant crisis, but the numbers embarking on the journey, and dying, continued to rise. One of the survivors, Ambesager Araya, and the man who rescued him, Vito Fiorino, speak with George Crafer. (Photo: Vito Fiorino and Ambesager Araya. Credit: Vito Fiorino)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there, welcome to the witness history podcast from the BBC World Service with me, George
0:09.8	Grafer. I'm taking you back 10 years to one of the worst tragedies on the Mediterranean
0:14.7	Sea. I'll be hearing from two people who's passed unexpectedly crossed when a boat carrying
0:23.8	over 500 migrants sank off the coast of Europe. At that moment what can you expect to hear?
0:31.9	It was wailing, everyone was crying. I firmly believe that the fate wanted us to remain there
0:39.2	the night. It's the 3rd of October 2013 and we're just off the coast of Lamperdusa, an Italian
0:48.1	island about 300 kilometers from Libya on the north coast of Africa. Hundreds of men, women and
0:53.7	children have been sailing through the night. We saw the lights and we could see the cars moving,
1:00.3	all those who had been sleeping woke up. Even those who were under could see some glimpse of lights
1:05.8	through the peepores. Everyone was so excited and people started to hug each other and express
1:12.0	the joy of safely arriving. But most of them will never reach their destination.
1:19.8	Breaking news from Italy, a boat packed with migrants from North Africa has caught fire and sunk
1:24.8	off the southernmost island in Italy. To understand how we got here we need to go back 25 hours.
1:31.2	Ambassador Raya, a 43-year-old, Eritrean teacher, is anxiously waiting with hundreds of
1:42.4	others in Libya for the conditions on the sea to improve. He's paid smugglers three and a half
1:47.1	thousand dollars to get him to Europe and he's about to begin the last leg of his journey.
1:53.2	When they told us that the sea is safe, we received the moment we joy and we also were told
1:59.2	we would be travelling in two boats because we were over 500 people. But instead of in two
2:06.0	boats we were told we would be sailing in one boat. That boat was 20 meters long with a maximum
2:12.4	capacity of 35. We would soon hold over 500 people. From there the journey started with a lot of
2:21.3	hope. Some were praying, others singing as we travel. In the beginning I was inside the ship and
2:29.2	the where I was it was very crowded and didn't have any space to sleep. So I somehow managed to get
	...

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