Well here’s some horrific news to report. According to multiple reports online, 26 Nigerian women & girls were found dead on a cruise ship while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea this weekend. The Guardian says that two men have been arrested and charged in Italy, but the investigations is still on-going. Autopsies are going to be carried out this week and that coroners would be investigating whether the girls had been tortured or sexually abused.
The bodies were recovered from two separate shipwrecks in the Sea, 23 from one and three from the other. The 23 dead women had been found on a rubber boat with 64 other people.
What’s worse about it all is that the majority of the deceased women found on the boat were only teenagers ranging between the ages of 14-18, all of whom were believed to be traveling by way of "people-smuggling gangs." The gangs reportedly charge migrants up to $6000 to get to Italy, with many migrants claiming that they're subjected to sexual abuse, torture and other violence at the hands of the gangs during the trips.
The bodies of the women were brought to the southern Italian port of Salerno by the Spanish ship Cantabria on Sunday, and prosecutors opened an investigation over suspicions that the women may have been abused and killed, but know one knows how yet.
The two men arrested have been named as Al Mabrouc Wisam Harar, from Libya, and Egyptian Mohamed Ali Al Bouzid. The two are believed to have skippered one of the boats, and were identified by survivors who were among the 375 brought to Salerno by Cantabria.
As for how or why the women were found dead remains to be unknown, but Italian officials are doing their best to find out these answers. Talk about a sad story. We’ll keep you posted if more information becomes available.