Lampedusa: One Victim Was Heading To The UK

At least one of the victims of the Lampedusa boat tragedy earlier this month was heading to Britain, Sky News has learned.

Habtom Andemichael, an Eritrean who has lived in the UK for six years and works in a Leeds factory, said his brother Kidane, 23, called to say he was on board the doomed ship as it left Libya.

When he later heard that the ship had sank off the coast of the Italian island on October 3, killing 359 passengers, he flew to Lampedusa where he identified his body.

Body bags containing African immigrants

He said his brother - a married father of one - paid a "large amount" of money for the trip as part of his attempt to reach the UK.

Meanwhile two families in London also say they had relatives on board who have not contacted them since the boat sank.

They are on their way to the island to identify the bodies.

Pictures of the recovered bodies are pinned up on noticeboards in a local police station, and families now have the harrowing task of viewing them to see if their loved ones are among them.

The coastguard worked through the night to rescue the survivors

Capsized boats have become commonplace in southern Europe, with 25,000 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean in the last 20 years, according to the International Organisation for Migration.

Of these, 2,000 died in 2011 and 1,700 last year.

Lampedusa, 70 miles (110km) off Tunisia and closer to Africa than the Italian mainland, has seen successive waves of illegal immigration.

Migrants who arrive in Lampedusa are processed in centres, screened for asylum and often sent back home.

On Friday, at least 34 people drowned in Maltese waters south of Lampedusa when a boat packed with hundreds of Syrian and Palestinians capsized.

:: Immigration UK: A week of special coverage on Sky from October 14 to 18 - watch on Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 82, Skynews.com and Sky News for iPad

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