Bangladeshi survives Mediterranean boat capsize

A Bangladeshi has survived the Mediterranean boat capsize that feared to have claimed lives of 700 migrants.

Italian police initially identified him as Hasan, 27, Rubaiyet-E-Ashique, first secretary (labour) to Bangladesh mission in Rome told The Daily Star over phone around 7:00pm today.

The rescued jobseeker remained reluctant to identify himself as Bangladeshi to avoid deportation from Italy, he also said.

“He had no passport or any other document. The police interrogated him several times but he was reluctant to identify himself instantly,” he added.

The Bangladeshi was kept at Cannizzaro Hospital in Catania, a city of Italy’s island Sicily, he mentioned.

“He was safe and sound. He was kept in the hospital only to avoid any virus related disease,” the first secretary claimed.

Bangladesh Honorary Consul General in Sicily visited the hospital but the police did not allow him to meet the rescued jobseeker, he said.

Meanwhile, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam told at a press conference that the government would continue its move to know whether anymore Bangladeshi was in the sunken boat.

“What we came to know so far that one Bangladeshi was rescued and he is under treatment at a hospital in Italian city Catania,” he said.

Italian prosecutors said the Bangladeshi survivor told them 950 people were aboard, reports Al Jazeera.

Earlier, authorities said a survivor told them 700 migrants were aboard.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said authorities were "not in a position to confirm or verify" how many were on board when the boat set out from Libya.

Eighteen ships joined the rescue effort, but only 28 survivors and 24 bodies had been pulled from the water by nightfall, Renzi said.

These small numbers make more sense if hundreds of people were locked in the hold, because with so much weight down below, "surely the boat would have sunk," said General Antonino Iraso, of the Italian Border Police, which has deployed boats in the operation.

The incident happened in an area just off Libyan waters, 193km south of Lampedusa island, according to a report in the Times of Malta's website.

ASM Ashraful Islam, counselor (Labour Wing) at the Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli, said some Bangladeshis were taking risky trip to go to Italy illegally through Mediterranean Sea being promised of lucrative jobs by brokers.

“Sometimes, we receive allegation that some Bangladeshis take illegal trip in the Mediterranean Sea to reach Italy through using Libya or Egypt as transition route,” he told The Daily Star over phone today.

It is really difficult to stop the Bangladeshis’ illegal sea voyage to Italy or any other foreign country because the brokers or the traffickers deal with the jobseekers very secretly, he added.