Ship smuggling immigrants towed to Italy

A ship crammed with about 900 clandestine immigrants, including many children, was towed under police escort to Italy’s southern coast today after it was stranded in the Adriatic Sea, authorities said.

The commander of the southern port of Gallipoli, Sandro Gallinelli, boarded the ship to direct the docking and disembarking of the passengers.

These included some 200 children and five pregnant women, the Italian news agency ANSA reported from Puglia.

Rough seas and strong winds hampered the towing effort, and it took several hours for the boat to reach shore.

ANSA said that shortly after midnight, port officials picked up radio calls for help from passengers, apparently after the crew abandoned their posts.

Border police in patrol boats and a helicopter were sent to the vessel after the alarm was detected.

The ship was believed to be from Turkey.

Most of the passengers appeared to be Kurds, but their nationalities were not immediately known.

Clandestine immigrants trying their luck aboard motorised dinghies or small fishing boats are often smuggled across the Adriatic to Italy’s long coastline.

Today’s load of passengers was one of the largest number of clandestine immigrants to attempt to make the voyage in hopes of finding work or relatives in Europe.

Police boarded the ship to try to determine if the passengers had been abandoned by their smugglers as they neared Italy or if the crew had abandoned their posts to mingle among the immigrants in the hope of escaping detection by Italian authorities.

Thousands of immigrants have managed to slip into Italy in recent years, but those who are found are sent back unless they can prove they have a job waiting or face persecution in their homeland.