Reply #44: Migrant: Many ships failed to aid Libyan refugees

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Migrant: Many ships failed to aid Libyan refugees

(AP) – 5 hours ago

VALLETTA, Malta (AP) — The 50-foot (15-meter) wooden boat drifted across the Mediterranean for five days without food and water after its engine died, unable to propel the 117 people crammed aboard from war in Libya to safety in Europe.

More than once, boats passed within sight, a survivor told The Associated Press: a container ship, a fishing boat, then two big ships, including one that shone a spotlight on the crippled boat. A plane flew overhead.

Still, help did not arrive until the tenth day. By then, a pregnant woman had died after trying to quench her thirst with sea water.

"A lot of people saw our ship. Fishermen, a ship with containers. We even saw a plane in the sky," said Faith Osarnehkoe, a Nigerian who was one of the 116 immigrants rescued by Maltese sailors and the sister of the woman who died.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jfSY6hkmSTCUI0pg1m_eNTxq580A?docId=218d0977a1164f0999ea6c59c3ad5828