Malta Holds Solemn Funeral for Migrant Shipwreck Victims

VALETTA: An imam and a bishop led a poignant inter-faith funeral service on Malta today for 24 drowned migrants, the only victims whose bodies were recovered from the Mediterranean in the weekend shipwreck that shocked Europe.

The dead were picked up by the Italian vessel Gregoretti and brought to Malta on Monday after their vessel capsized and sank early on Sunday morning. As many as 900 people are believed to have died.

Twenty-eight survivors were taken to Italy. The overwhelming majority of victims were never found, locked below decks and sinking along with the boat. The captain has been arrested in Italy on suspicion of homicide, people smuggling and causing a shipwreck.

The disaster brought the death toll so far this year to around 1,800 desperate migrants drowned in the Mediterranean while trying to cross, and prompted the EU to summon leaders of its 28 member states for an emergency summit today.

European leaders were expected to reverse a decision they took last year to halt search and rescue efforts at sea, which human rights groups say led inevitably to the deaths.

The funeral ceremony in the island state, the EU's smallest country, was conducted under a large tent just outside the morgue of the Mater Dei Hospital in Malta's capital Valetta.

Maltese President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, the EU Commissioner for Migration and ministers from Italy and Greece watched as coffins of the 24 unidentified men, including four teenagers, were carried by soldiers. The route was lined by bouquets of flowers which overthe past days were sent to the morgue by Maltese.

Imam Mohammed El Sadi thanked the Maltese and Italian authorities for seeking to save the migrants. What had happened, he said, should raise awareness of the migrants' plight.

Bishop Mario Grech called for humanitarian action motivated by love, rather than the law.

"We can continue to read out the laws like lawyers do, but that is not enough. The way of the law, the way of justice should open itself to the way of love."

The migrants were to be taken in groups of six to be buried at Malta's Addolorata Cemetery.

A memorial service was held on Wednesday, with the hospital morgue blanketed with flowers sent by local residents. A note attached to one bouquet read: "RIP brothers and sisters, you matter".

"We proceeded out at sea with the hope of course to save as many people as we could. But unfortunately we didn't arrive quite in time to save the migrants," said visibly moved Maltese Navy Lieutenant Mark Merceica, who attended the memorial.

"We were really disappointed, and you could feel this through the entire crew, we were really hoping to arrive in time."