:00:00. > :00:18.In the 21st century, the Mediterranean Sea is fast becoming a
:00:19. > :00:22.mass grave. This year so far, 4700 people have drowned on the open sea.
:00:23. > :00:31.Very few sinkings have been properly investigated. Until now. What we
:00:32. > :00:37.believe is the worst sinking of 2016 took place at night, at sea. There
:00:38. > :00:42.is no footage so we've had to build a picture from the survivors
:00:43. > :00:46.scattered across Europe. It is a story of grief.
:00:47. > :00:56.Frustration. Do you think the authorities have done enough to
:00:57. > :01:01.investigate Mr Mark accusations of murder. Do you think this is murder?
:01:02. > :01:07.Yeah, this one. This one. And international inaction. There has
:01:08. > :01:13.been no investigation so far. Are you comfortable with that? Not
:01:14. > :01:21.really, no. This is the story of the forgotten shipwreck.
:01:22. > :01:26.On April 16 this year, a small fishing boat was picked up off the
:01:27. > :01:47.Greek coast. On board, 37 survivors. They said they'd come from Libya and
:01:48. > :01:53.so did the UNHCR. Perhaps as many as 500 people drowned a few days ago.
:01:54. > :02:02.We don't know exactly when. When a large ship went down between Libya
:02:03. > :02:05.and Italy. But when Stephen Gray from Reuters talked to survivors he
:02:06. > :02:11.started to question the official version. It was their own language,
:02:12. > :02:14.the way they were holding back about some details, the way they were very
:02:15. > :02:18.vague about certain things, that they had all apparently lost their
:02:19. > :02:23.phones, but they couldn't remember who, for example, they had paid
:02:24. > :02:27.money to get on this voyage and the dates they were giving didn't really
:02:28. > :02:30.add up. And the details of how they had apparently simply drifted from
:02:31. > :02:38.the scene of this disaster off the coast of Libya to a rescue point
:02:39. > :02:46.halfway between Greece and Italy, it didn't seem, to me, to add up.
:02:47. > :02:53.Together with Reuters, Newsnight set up to find out what really happened.
:02:54. > :02:57.I am not thinking to go out from this ocean... Muaz Ayimo is one of
:02:58. > :03:08.the survivors of the sinking. He had hoped to build a new life in Europe
:03:09. > :03:11.with his wife and baby boy. Muaz Ayimo, his wife and daughter along
:03:12. > :03:16.with 200 other migrants were voted off a small fishing feeder boat onto
:03:17. > :03:20.a deep sea fishing trawler. It is going to take them across the
:03:21. > :03:22.Mediterranean to Italy but the trawler was already crammed with 300
:03:23. > :04:20.people. These two young men rocked the top
:04:21. > :05:02.deck of the trawler when it capsized. They made it to France.
:05:03. > :05:10.Overloaded boats can sync all too easily. At least this boat capsized
:05:11. > :05:15.in daylight when migrants crowded to one side after spotting an Italian
:05:16. > :05:22.naval ship. The trawler in our story sank at night. The physics of the
:05:23. > :05:26.sinking are simple. 500 people way roughly ten times. At ten tons of
:05:27. > :06:22.cargo shifts suddenly, then a boat can capsize.
:06:23. > :06:29.Ibsa was the last person Muaz was able to save. Ibsa, how many people
:06:30. > :07:01.were in the water when the feeder boat left?
:07:02. > :07:12.There is no video of what happened that night so we are going back with
:07:13. > :07:24.old technology. We have asked Muaz to draw.
:07:25. > :07:35.Do you think this is murder? Yeah, this one is murder, this one. Muaz
:07:36. > :07:40.is housed in a refugee centre. He is one of the lucky ones. At almost 100
:07:41. > :07:45.people in the water, almost all were abandoned. As far as we can tell,
:07:46. > :07:49.there has been no official investigation into the sinking of
:07:50. > :07:52.this shift in the eastern Mediterranean but the evidence is
:07:53. > :07:56.available. There are survivors living in refugee centres like this
:07:57. > :08:08.one behind me and that points to not just mass killing but something
:08:09. > :08:11.darker than that. Murder. When the smugglers boat when the smugglers
:08:12. > :08:13.boat sailed away, leaving those people in the water, do you think
:08:14. > :08:43.that was murder? There is clear evidence from
:08:44. > :08:48.multiple sources pointing to murder at sea. But there is a crucial fact
:08:49. > :08:51.that everyone has overlooked, an error that has prevented the
:08:52. > :08:57.relatives of the dead getting any kind of justice. The survivors told
:08:58. > :09:05.everyone they came from Libya but that was a lie. The boat left not
:09:06. > :09:24.from Libya but here in Egypt. Was the story about Tobruk true?
:09:25. > :09:35.Libya is in chaos but Egypt is firmly under the helm of its
:09:36. > :09:40.strongman president, Sisi. So there is a big question, what is ejected
:09:41. > :09:45.doing to police its people smugglers? Not it seems. The
:09:46. > :09:52.migrants bought their tickets here in Cairo bomb brokers. 500 people on
:09:53. > :09:58.the boat, many at $2000 each. That could be as much as $1 million
:09:59. > :10:03.gross. Even after expenses, the smugglers are making a killing. I
:10:04. > :10:06.travelled to a village in the Nile Delta when nine boys who were on the
:10:07. > :10:20.boat came from. To many people in Europe, a migrant
:10:21. > :10:27.boat sinking might seem like yet another grim statistic. For this
:10:28. > :10:32.town, it was far, far worse than that. The list of the missing on her
:10:33. > :11:09.village starts with her own son. When you hear about these mass
:11:10. > :11:14.sinkings in the Mediterranean, you hear about Libya, not teach it. But
:11:15. > :11:19.our investigation has shown that as many as -- as many as 150 Egyptians
:11:20. > :11:25.may have died in this tragedy. The Egyptian authorities haven't
:11:26. > :11:29.investigated so you might well ask, why is that? Have the Egyptian
:11:30. > :12:36.authorities got something to hide? One consequence of the investigation
:12:37. > :12:41.is relatives cannot get closure. -- no investigation. In the absence of
:12:42. > :12:43.hard facts, conspiracy theories flight. For example, thinking, what
:12:44. > :13:17.thinking? -- sinking, what sinking? Because there has been no full
:13:18. > :13:22.enquiry, she believes her son may still be alive. But other people in
:13:23. > :13:28.the village are less optimistic. This man's two sons are also still
:13:29. > :13:40.missing. Do you think the Egyptian
:13:41. > :13:59.authorities have done enough to get to the bottom of what happened?
:14:00. > :14:07.The village is divided about what happened. But this is what our
:14:08. > :14:14.investigation understands of the doomed voyage. The migrants leave
:14:15. > :14:25.the beach at Alexandria at night in small boats like these. They are
:14:26. > :14:28.picked up by the smugglers' feeder boat, which goes to the trawler in
:14:29. > :14:38.international waters. While they are transferring them to the trawler,
:14:39. > :14:49.hundreds of refugees, roughly 500 people in all, capsized. This is
:14:50. > :14:54.Miami Beach, Alexandria, where many migrants say their voyage started.
:14:55. > :14:58.Over there, that plays with the little hut, that is a military post.
:14:59. > :15:10.The idea that hundreds of migrants could leave this place without being
:15:11. > :15:20.seen, that is a little far-fetched. The evidence linking the disaster to
:15:21. > :15:25.two smugglers comes from this man. Abdelhamid is the father of an
:15:26. > :15:28.Egyptian. He went to the police and they carried out a curious
:15:29. > :15:34.investigation which said there was no manslaughter or murder, but only
:15:35. > :15:36.financial fraud. The police have said this is a fraud case. Is this
:15:37. > :15:57.right? Do you think the authorities have
:15:58. > :16:18.done enough to investigate this tragedy? The alleged leaders of the
:16:19. > :16:24.smuggling gang are known by their nicknames, the doctor, and Al-Bougi.
:16:25. > :16:53.This man claims the man was sent by Al-Bougi.
:16:54. > :17:03.We wanted to ask this man, lack of three, about his alleged role in the
:17:04. > :17:10.sinking,, but no one was in. -- Al-Bougy. We were told he was on the
:17:11. > :17:17.run. The doctor did not return calls made by our investigation. Back in
:17:18. > :17:21.Cairo, we set out to track down the Somali broker, and wanted to
:17:22. > :17:26.challenge him in the loss of so many lives and his role in that. But the
:17:27. > :17:30.secret police had other ideas. We are trying to interview this man. We
:17:31. > :17:39.have been stopped by some secret police. We are not free to leave. We
:17:40. > :17:48.are waiting for the police to talk to us some more. We are now being
:17:49. > :17:57.escorted to the police station. Isn't that nice? Comically, the
:17:58. > :18:01.Egyptian authorities are more keen on preventing journalism than people
:18:02. > :18:06.smuggling. As a result, the drownings continue. In September,
:18:07. > :18:12.another overloaded vessel sank off the coast of Egypt. But this time so
:18:13. > :18:18.close to the shore that authorities were compelled to act. 200 people
:18:19. > :18:24.drowned. Had the tragedy being properly investigated, the second
:18:25. > :18:28.loss of life that was massive could perhaps be have been avoided. In
:18:29. > :18:33.Egypt, a spokesman for the Minister for Justice said if the current of
:18:34. > :18:36.such a crime is proven, Egypt will certainly not hesitate to conduct
:18:37. > :18:39.the necessary investigations to uncovered it and arrest the
:18:40. > :18:45.perpetrators and bring them to justice. The Egyptian Ministry of
:18:46. > :18:50.Justice did carry out an investigation, but recently carried
:18:51. > :18:55.out laws against illegal migration and are determined to take action
:18:56. > :18:58.against the smugglers. But Egypt is not the only country with questions
:18:59. > :19:05.to answer. In Greece, the country where the survivors arrived, there
:19:06. > :19:09.has been no investigation. Nobody has held anyone to account for the
:19:10. > :19:15.deaths or even opened in enquiry into the shipwreck. As well as the
:19:16. > :19:21.tragic loss of life, Europe's own security is being undermined. Went
:19:22. > :19:27.to The Hague to ask the head of the European police agency, Europe all,
:19:28. > :19:31.why it had failed. We believe 500 people drowning is the biggest mass
:19:32. > :19:37.drowning of 2016. So far there has been no investigation. Are you
:19:38. > :19:43.comfortable with that? Not really, no. This is a humanitarian disaster.
:19:44. > :19:48.The absence of clear answers in this case need to be referred to the
:19:49. > :19:51.authorities involved and reflect the difficulty in getting to the heart
:19:52. > :19:57.of the story and getting information from the survivors. And there is
:19:58. > :20:05.really some investigators problem in identifying who is responsible. --
:20:06. > :20:15.investigative. The numbers are massive, 500 people paying $2000 per
:20:16. > :20:20.person. The gangsters are getting away with it, are they not? We have
:20:21. > :20:25.a sizeable criminal community between Europe and Africa and the
:20:26. > :20:30.Middle East in the last year. We have identified over 50,000 people
:20:31. > :20:34.smugglers are operating. It is a criminal industry worth at least $5
:20:35. > :20:42.billion a year. 100 people in the water when the smugglers' boat left.
:20:43. > :20:46.That is murder, isn't it? It would need to be tested in a court of law
:20:47. > :20:56.but it does not sound very healthy, does it? Nobody is owning up to
:20:57. > :20:59.this. Europol has not done an investigation because no one has
:21:00. > :21:07.complained to you. You are powerless. No, of course. We can
:21:08. > :21:10.institute a full range of expertise and capabilities that we have at
:21:11. > :21:15.Europol. We have used it in many cases to hunt down and successfully
:21:16. > :21:20.target these people smuggling organisations. In this case, I think
:21:21. > :21:24.there has been some good work done in your investigation. I would like
:21:25. > :21:29.to receive the investigated file you have so we can look at it again and
:21:30. > :21:43.take it to the authorities so we can see if there is much more we can do.
:21:44. > :21:46.If these mass sinkings are not thoroughly investigated, three
:21:47. > :21:51.things will continue to happen, the first is the smugglers will continue
:21:52. > :21:54.to get more rich. The second is Europe will not be able to put
:21:55. > :21:59.pressure on post countries like Egypt. In the third, the worst of
:22:00. > :22:05.all, is that thousands of people will continue to drown. People in
:22:06. > :22:10.Europe who feel anxious about so-called Islamic State hiding among
:22:11. > :22:15.the migrants will feel no safer if the smugglers are allowed to carry
:22:16. > :22:22.on with impunity. And for the people who have lost loved ones, no
:22:23. > :22:56.investigation means grief without end.
:22:57. > :23:03.It is pretty damp out there. More rain on the way for Saturday. Heavy
:23:04. > :23:09.rain, actually. That is worse for southern areas of the UK. On top of
:23:10. > :23:10.that, we will start to see slightly cooler air coming our way as