Herded like
cattle into the rusty hull of an ageing merchant vessel, these are the
desperate migrants abandoned by people traffickers to drift helplessly
at sea.
The grainy photo
– taken on board freighter Blue Sky M – reveals how 796 migrants
including women and children were packed together in squalor on the
freezing metal floor.
It was taken by a 35-year-old Syrian, who claims he paid almost £11,000 for himself and his pregnant wife to make the journey.
And on board a second so-called ghost ship, authorities this week found
359 people shivering and starving who had been crammed into freezing
livestock holds on a 50-year-old freighter called Ezadeen.
With nowhere to
sit or sleep, the migrants were forced to squeeze between metal bars
designed to contain cattle and sheep and huddle together in the filthy
pens.
The passengers,
including 54 women – several of whom were pregnant – and 74 children,
eight of whom were unaccompanied, endured a miserable ten-day voyage
before they were rescued on Friday night.
They ran out of
food, drink and fuel after five days, when the smugglers apparently
locked them in the decaying vessel and escaped on a lifeboat.
Police believe
the traffickers made almost £2million from the ‘socially well-off’
illegal migrants, believed to be from war-torn Syria, who would have
each paid between £2,000 and £5,000 for their place on the perilous
journey.
The migrants will now be taken to immigration centres and assessed to see if they have a valid claim for asylum.
Before they can
be granted asylum they must persuade authorities that they are fleeing
persecution and would face harm or death if sent back to their country
of origin.