Protest hits Rome over Libya migrant deal after boat wreck

In return, Libya is expected to help stem the departure of migrants to Italy or return those already at sea back to Libya. That agreement is up for renewal next month.

During the protest, dozens of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa recounted what they endured in Libya, and a minute of silence was held for those who died trying to cross the Mediterranean.

Hundreds of people attended the event, including activist Sarita Fratini.

"In the central Mediterranean, there is a line called the line of death," Fratini told AFP.

"In the Libyan area, you get captured. In the north, you die because there is no one there."

Fratini has been helping migrants sue Italy after they were seized in the Mediterranean by Libya and pushed back to detention centres there.

Rights activists and former detainees have denounced such centres for abuse, torture and other crimes.

- 'Total anguish' -

Irene Dea, 46, from Ivory Coast, told AFP she had tried to reach Europe three times by boat, with 12 people dying in the Mediterranean on her first attempt. 

After Libyan forces pushed back her boat, she spent six months at the notorious Az-Zawiyah detention centre west of Tripoli. 

"I saw women being raped with my own eyes" there, she said. "You don't eat... it was total anguish."

NGOs have reported increasing episodes in recent months of Libya's coastguard shooting at boats carrying migrants in the Mediterranean.

Last week, the Alarm Phone charity, which runs a hotline for migrants stranded in the Mediterranean, reported a fatal shooting at a boat it said was carrying 113 migrants southeast of Malta. 

Italy's coastguard also said migrants it subsequently rescued said they had been shot at.

If boats are not returned to Libya, migrants still have to survive the journey across the Mediterranean.

That crossing has cost the lives of more than 1,000 people so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration.

- Rescue operation criticised -

On Friday, Italy's coastguard said it was searching for the survivors of a wrecked vessel carrying about 30 people in the search and a rescue area of Malta, some 50 miles southeast of Lampedusa.

It said the coastguard had rescued seven people and another four were picked up by a nearby merchant ship.

One body was recovered, with Italian and Maltese patrol vessels and Italian planes taking part in the search.

The Italian coordinator for UNICEF, Nicola Dell'Arciprete, told AGI news agency that a pregnant woman had died and "several children are reported missing".

He said four children travelling alone were among the survivors, who told authorities the small fibreglass boat had left Al Khums, Libya, before capsizing after two days at sea.

Sea-Watch International, which operates migrant rescue boats, criticised the rescue operation.

"Italy and Malta knew about the boat since yesterday afternoon, thanks to Alarm Phone, but did not send help until it was too late," it said in a social media post Saturday.

Alarm Phone also said it had signalled the boat carrying about 35 people to the authorities, but "they failed to act.

"The boat capsized, we fear about 20 deaths. We cannot express our anger at yet another group consciously being left to die," wrote Alarm Phone on social media. 

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