Nearly 11,000 migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa have attempted to reach Italy in just the past few weeks alone. But of the many Africans seeking refuge in Italy, Italian authorities say that Muslims from Libya threw overboard 12 fellow passengers this week.
The 12 were thrown to their death because they were Christian, according to Italian police.
Police in Palermo, Sicily arrested 15 African migrants suspected of murdering the Christians.
The murders happened when 105 people were fleeing Libya on a rubber boat. Muslims from the Ivory Coast, Mali and Senegal threw the 12 Christians overboard, the Italian police said.
Other passengers on that boat told Italian authorities that they survived because some passengers “formed a human chain” to prevent further murders.
The Christians who died were reportedly from Nigeria and Ghana. Arrests were made when the ship to which the migrants were transferred docked in Palermo, Sicily on Wednesday, April 15. The 15 men were arrested on suspicion of ‘multiple aggravated murder motivated by religious hate,’ Palermo police said in a statement.
Italian police say they were informed of the alleged attacks by a group of Nigerian and Ghanaian survivors upon their arrival in Sicily.
