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Thursday, August 18, 2005
A Flare Saved the Life of the 97 Immigrants off Tenerife
A flare called the attention of the US Navy Training ship, The Eagle, allowing them to save the lives of almost 100 illegal immigrants on board a clandestine fishing boat, in waters 23 miles of the coast of South Tenerife on Monday night.
Among the 97 people on the ancient 20 meter vessel, the majority of whom were very young and none were above 30 years, were a baby of under two years, the mother and another child of 10 or 12, as well as the two crew, accused of trafficking in human lives.
A number were taken to hospital with dehydration and, according to the medical staff who attended them, had been several days without food. Reports of stomach pains led medical staff to believe that they may have resorted to drinking sea water.
Some of the immigrants have commented to health workers that they had indeed thrown the bodies of the two people who had died during this sad voyage, overboard into the ocean. The fishing boat, which had no rudder, no engines, nor fuel, would have condemned them all to a certain death if they had not been spotted.
Una bengala salva la vida a las 97 personas hacinadas en el barco de inmigrantes a la deriva
