Kurds' fate evokes sympathy

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS, FEB. 18.The ship carrying over 900 Iraqi Kurd illegal immigrants which sank off the French Riviera city of San Raphael in the early hours of Saturday was deliberately run aground by its captain and crew leaving the hapless survivors, including hundreds of women and children, floundering in icy seas, French authorities said today. ``The captain fled, leaving the boat facing land with the propellers turning so it could not drift away. This was a deliberate act, professionally carried out,'' said Mr. Georges Ginestat, mayor of San Raphael.

The clandestine immigrants say they paid $4000 per adult and $1700 per child to get on board the boat. Officials believe the ship was bound for Italy but had lost its way and hit France instead. The 912 clandestine immigrants who were fleeing persecution, deprivation and poverty in Northern Iraq have been taken to the French military base in Frejus in the French Alps. Many of them are suffering from dehydration and hypothermia.

The Greek captain and crew of the rusty Cambodian- registered freighter the East Sea have fled. Police have mounted an international alert for them. Police are also on the look-out for the ship's owner, believed to be a Syrian. The ship was towed towards the military port of Toulon but broke up and sank before it could reach the harbour. The incident, which comes at a time of intense debate within Europe over illegal immigration, has created consternation and outrage in France.

The Prime Minister, Mr. Lionel Jospin, has refrained from making any statement, allowing the General Secretary of his Socialist Party, Mr. Francois Hollande, to say that while the immigrants must be treated with humanity they must ultimately be repatriated.

Questions are being asked over the attitude of Greece and Turkey, one a full and the other an associate member of the European Union. The ship began its journey in Greece and made a stopover in Turkey before heading for France.

The plight of the immigrants is so pitiable that no politician has dared talk of outright expulsion. The French President, Mr. Jacques Chirac, in a statement said: ``These people were transported illegally in unacceptable, unworthy, dangerous and inhuman conditions. The international community must act to prevent this sort of situation happening again and bring those responsible to justice.''

Officials from humanitarian associations who examined the Kurds said they were in ``deplorable health''. Three babies were born on board the freighter which had ``no sanitary facilities to talk of,'' a social worker said.

``We were hunkered down in the hold. We did not know if it was day or night. There was no water or food, no toilets. I do not know how many days we spent on the boat,'' one of the refugees told French radio.

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Section  : International
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