Syrian Refugees rescued from boat

http://news.sky.com/story/1158412/syrian-refugee-rescue-caught-on-camera


Apparently Syrian Refugees in Lybia have been paying to be taken by Boat to either Italy or Malta and blown up half way across , several deaths.

So many Countries involved now, where will it all end???It's tragic.

Lampedusa Boat Victims 'Raped And Tortured'

Eritrean asylum seekers whose boat sank off the Italian coast claim their traffickers held them for ransom in Libya.

3:44am UK, Saturday 09 November 2013

Somali 24-year old Mouhamaud Muhidin is shown in this picture released by Italian Police in Palermo
Somali Mouhamaud Muhidin is accused rape, torture and kidnapping












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Italian police have arrested a Somali man accused of raping and torturing asylum seekers fleeing Libya on a boat which sank off the island of Lampedusa last month killing more than 365 migrants.

Mouhamud Elmi Muhidin, 34, faces charges of kidnapping, sexual assault, people trafficking and criminal association with the goal of aiding illegal immigration after he was identified by survivors.

Italian Police and Guardia Costiera (Coast Guard) officers carry an injured refugee as he arrives on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa April 6, 2011. More than 130 people were missing and at least 15 appeared to be dead after a boat carrying Eritrean and Somali refugees from Libya capsized south of Sicily.
Some 130 Eritreans were assaulted in Libay according to police

Some 130 migrants from Eritrea told police they were held for ransom at a detention centre in the Libyan desert by people traffickers from Somalia, Libya and Sudan.

A 17-year-old Eritrean girl interviewed by police said: "They forced us to watch our men being tortured with various methods including batons, electric shocks to the feet; whoever rebelled was tied up.”

The migrants were forced to pay up to $3,500 (£2,180) for their freedom and their onward journey to the Libyan coast and a boat that due to take them to Italy.

An Eritrean migrant hides his face behind a poster calling for his freedom in a dormitory at the Lyster barracks detention centre for immigrants in Hal FarA 29-year-old Eritrean migrant stands against a fence at the Safi barracks detention centre for immigrants, which currently holds around 650 detainees, in Safi
Those who survived the crossing are held at detention centres in Italy

"The women who could not pay were assaulted," the girl said.

She also described in her own sexual assault, claiming Muhidin was one of three men who raped her.

"They threw me on the ground, held me down and poured fuel on my head. It burnt my hair, then my face, then my eyes.

"Then the three of them raped me without protection. After a quarter of an hour I was beaten and taken back to the house."

Muhidin was arrested on Lampedusa after he was spotted by some of the survivors on the island. He has now been flown to Sicily where he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

Italian police carries a Tunisian man suspected of being the driver of a migrant boat that sank off the coast of Lampedusa nearly a week ago as they arrives at Porto Empedocle
Police also held this Tunisian man suspected of driving one of the boats

Investigators say he arrived on the island last week and had been staying in the local migrant centre, pretending to be one of the refugees.

"He was one of the leaders of the trafficking organisation," a police spokeswoman said, adding that he may have come to Italy to look for criminal contacts.

Italian authorities have vowed to crack down on the people trafficking rings that have been behind the influx of more than 35,000 asylum seekers so far this year to the country's coasts.

Most of them come from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria and Italy has asked for the European Union to step up assistance in dealing with the arrivals and countering the criminal networks behind them.

As if these poor People have not suffered enough the Political turmoil is spreading and there will come a point that no Country will be able to afford to take them in and the existing Camps run by Charities will not have the Staff or resources to cope. Turkey is already protesting that it is overloaded .

What a Mad Mad World we are living in.