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The Forgotten Shipwreck

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In the 21st century, the Mediterranean Sea is fast becoming a

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mass grave. This year so far, 4700 people have drowned on the open sea.

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Very few sinkings have been properly investigated. Until now. What we

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believe is the worst sinking of 2016 took place at night, at sea. There

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is no footage so we've had to build a picture from the survivors

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scattered across Europe. It is a story of grief.

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Frustration. Do you think the authorities have done enough to

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investigate Mr Mark accusations of murder. Do you think this is murder?

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Yeah, this one. This one. And international inaction. There has

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been no investigation so far. Are you comfortable with that? Not

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really, no. This is the story of the forgotten shipwreck.

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On April 16 this year, a small fishing boat was picked up off the

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Greek coast. On board, 37 survivors. They said they'd come from Libya and

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so did the UNHCR. Perhaps as many as 500 people drowned a few days ago.

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We don't know exactly when. When a large ship went down between Libya

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and Italy. But when Stephen Gray from Reuters talked to survivors he

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started to question the official version. It was their own language,

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the way they were holding back about some details, the way they were very

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vague about certain things, that they had all apparently lost their

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phones, but they couldn't remember who, for example, they had paid

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money to get on this voyage and the dates they were giving didn't really

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add up. And the details of how they had apparently simply drifted from

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the scene of this disaster off the coast of Libya to a rescue point

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halfway between Greece and Italy, it didn't seem, to me, to add up.

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Together with Reuters, Newsnight set up to find out what really happened.

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I am not thinking to go out from this ocean... Muaz Ayimo is one of

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the survivors of the sinking. He had hoped to build a new life in Europe

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with his wife and baby boy. Muaz Ayimo, his wife and daughter along

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with 200 other migrants were voted off a small fishing feeder boat onto

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a deep sea fishing trawler. It is going to take them across the

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Mediterranean to Italy but the trawler was already crammed with 300

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people. These two young men rocked the top

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deck of the trawler when it capsized. They made it to France.

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Overloaded boats can sync all too easily. At least this boat capsized

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in daylight when migrants crowded to one side after spotting an Italian

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naval ship. The trawler in our story sank at night. The physics of the

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sinking are simple. 500 people way roughly ten times. At ten tons of

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cargo shifts suddenly, then a boat can capsize.

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Ibsa was the last person Muaz was able to save. Ibsa, how many people

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were in the water when the feeder boat left?

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There is no video of what happened that night so we are going back with

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old technology. We have asked Muaz to draw.

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Do you think this is murder? Yeah, this one is murder, this one. Muaz

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is housed in a refugee centre. He is one of the lucky ones. At almost 100

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people in the water, almost all were abandoned. As far as we can tell,

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there has been no official investigation into the sinking of

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this shift in the eastern Mediterranean but the evidence is

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available. There are survivors living in refugee centres like this

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one behind me and that points to not just mass killing but something

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darker than that. Murder. When the smugglers boat when the smugglers

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boat sailed away, leaving those people in the water, do you think

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that was murder? There is clear evidence from

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multiple sources pointing to murder at sea. But there is a crucial fact

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that everyone has overlooked, an error that has prevented the

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relatives of the dead getting any kind of justice. The survivors told

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everyone they came from Libya but that was a lie. The boat left not

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from Libya but here in Egypt. Was the story about Tobruk true?

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Libya is in chaos but Egypt is firmly under the helm of its

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strongman president, Sisi. So there is a big question, what is ejected

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doing to police its people smugglers? Not it seems. The

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migrants bought their tickets here in Cairo bomb brokers. 500 people on

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the boat, many at $2000 each. That could be as much as $1 million

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gross. Even after expenses, the smugglers are making a killing. I

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travelled to a village in the Nile Delta when nine boys who were on the

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boat came from. To many people in Europe, a migrant

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boat sinking might seem like yet another grim statistic. For this

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town, it was far, far worse than that. The list of the missing on her

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village starts with her own son. When you hear about these mass

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sinkings in the Mediterranean, you hear about Libya, not teach it. But

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our investigation has shown that as many as -- as many as 150 Egyptians

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may have died in this tragedy. The Egyptian authorities haven't

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investigated so you might well ask, why is that? Have the Egyptian

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authorities got something to hide? One consequence of the investigation

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is relatives cannot get closure. -- no investigation. In the absence of

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hard facts, conspiracy theories flight. For example, thinking, what

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thinking? -- sinking, what sinking? Because there has been no full

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enquiry, she believes her son may still be alive. But other people in

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the village are less optimistic. This man's two sons are also still

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missing. Do you think the Egyptian

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authorities have done enough to get to the bottom of what happened?

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The village is divided about what happened. But this is what our

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investigation understands of the doomed voyage. The migrants leave

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the beach at Alexandria at night in small boats like these. They are

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picked up by the smugglers' feeder boat, which goes to the trawler in

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international waters. While they are transferring them to the trawler,

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hundreds of refugees, roughly 500 people in all, capsized. This is

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Miami Beach, Alexandria, where many migrants say their voyage started.

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Over there, that plays with the little hut, that is a military post.

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The idea that hundreds of migrants could leave this place without being

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seen, that is a little far-fetched. The evidence linking the disaster to

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two smugglers comes from this man. Abdelhamid is the father of an

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Egyptian. He went to the police and they carried out a curious

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investigation which said there was no manslaughter or murder, but only

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financial fraud. The police have said this is a fraud case. Is this

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right? Do you think the authorities have

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done enough to investigate this tragedy? The alleged leaders of the

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smuggling gang are known by their nicknames, the doctor, and Al-Bougi.

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This man claims the man was sent by Al-Bougi.

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We wanted to ask this man, lack of three, about his alleged role in the

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sinking,, but no one was in. -- Al-Bougy. We were told he was on the

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run. The doctor did not return calls made by our investigation. Back in

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Cairo, we set out to track down the Somali broker, and wanted to

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challenge him in the loss of so many lives and his role in that. But the

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secret police had other ideas. We are trying to interview this man. We

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have been stopped by some secret police. We are not free to leave. We

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are waiting for the police to talk to us some more. We are now being

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escorted to the police station. Isn't that nice? Comically, the

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Egyptian authorities are more keen on preventing journalism than people

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smuggling. As a result, the drownings continue. In September,

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another overloaded vessel sank off the coast of Egypt. But this time so

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close to the shore that authorities were compelled to act. 200 people

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drowned. Had the tragedy being properly investigated, the second

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loss of life that was massive could perhaps be have been avoided. In

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Egypt, a spokesman for the Minister for Justice said if the current of

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such a crime is proven, Egypt will certainly not hesitate to conduct

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the necessary investigations to uncovered it and arrest the

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perpetrators and bring them to justice. The Egyptian Ministry of

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Justice did carry out an investigation, but recently carried

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out laws against illegal migration and are determined to take action

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against the smugglers. But Egypt is not the only country with questions

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to answer. In Greece, the country where the survivors arrived, there

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has been no investigation. Nobody has held anyone to account for the

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deaths or even opened in enquiry into the shipwreck. As well as the

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tragic loss of life, Europe's own security is being undermined. Went

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to The Hague to ask the head of the European police agency, Europe all,

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why it had failed. We believe 500 people drowning is the biggest mass

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drowning of 2016. So far there has been no investigation. Are you

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comfortable with that? Not really, no. This is a humanitarian disaster.

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The absence of clear answers in this case need to be referred to the

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authorities involved and reflect the difficulty in getting to the heart

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of the story and getting information from the survivors. And there is

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really some investigators problem in identifying who is responsible. --

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investigative. The numbers are massive, 500 people paying $2000 per

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person. The gangsters are getting away with it, are they not? We have

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a sizeable criminal community between Europe and Africa and the

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Middle East in the last year. We have identified over 50,000 people

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smugglers are operating. It is a criminal industry worth at least $5

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billion a year. 100 people in the water when the smugglers' boat left.

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That is murder, isn't it? It would need to be tested in a court of law

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but it does not sound very healthy, does it? Nobody is owning up to

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this. Europol has not done an investigation because no one has

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complained to you. You are powerless. No, of course. We can

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institute a full range of expertise and capabilities that we have at

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Europol. We have used it in many cases to hunt down and successfully

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target these people smuggling organisations. In this case, I think

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there has been some good work done in your investigation. I would like

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to receive the investigated file you have so we can look at it again and

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take it to the authorities so we can see if there is much more we can do.

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If these mass sinkings are not thoroughly investigated, three

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things will continue to happen, the first is the smugglers will continue

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to get more rich. The second is Europe will not be able to put

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pressure on post countries like Egypt. In the third, the worst of

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all, is that thousands of people will continue to drown. People in

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Europe who feel anxious about so-called Islamic State hiding among

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the migrants will feel no safer if the smugglers are allowed to carry

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on with impunity. And for the people who have lost loved ones, no

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investigation means grief without end.

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It is pretty damp out there. More rain on the way for Saturday. Heavy

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rain, actually. That is worse for southern areas of the UK. On top of

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that, we will start to see slightly cooler air coming our way as

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