Italian prosecutors have begun an investigation into the deaths of 26 Nigerian women who were mostly teenagers. The bodies of these women were recovered at sea.
It is suspected that these women may have been sexually abused and murdered while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea. Questioning is ongoing in the southern port of Salerno on five migrants.
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A Spanish warship, Cantabria, docked at the southern port of Salerno carrying the dead women and 375 migrants following several rescues.
According to BBC report, Twenty-three of the dead women had been on a rubber boat with 64 other people. Most of the dead women were between the ages of 14-18 years.
Italian media reports that the dead bodies are being kept in a refrigerated section of the warship. According to daily La Repubblica reports, most of the 375 survivors brought to Salerno were sub-Saharan Africans, from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, The Gambia and Sudan.
According to the Italian aid group L’Abbraccio, gangs smuggling people charge migrant about $6,000 (£4,578) to get to Italy, $4,000 of which is for the trans-Saharan journey to Libya.
Violence, torture and sexual abuse, by the gangs, have been reported by the migrants.
Photo source: BBC
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