EU officials vow to never forget lampedusa dead

Top-level European Union officials vowed Wednesday to do everything in their power to prevent more migrant deaths at Europe’s sea borders, after being heckled by local residents during a visit to Lampedusa, German News Agency(DPA) reported A boat carrying an estimated 500 passengers sank off the southern Italian island on October 3, the biggest such accident in recent European history. There were 155 survivors and 302 certified victims, but divers were still searching for bodies trapped underwater. “That image of hundreds of coffins will never get out of my mind,” European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said after visiting the airport hangar where the dead have been piled up. “The commission will do all it can with the means we have to change the situation.” He was met by dozens of people shouting “buffoons, shame,” and by hostile banners, including one which read, “Enough with photo opportunities – politicians, go home.” Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini had said that islanders expected more than symbolic gestures. “If they have to come to Lampedusa only to express their condolences, they can send an email,” she said Monday. Barroso, who came with the bloc’s top migration and security official, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, was escorted by Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta and Interior Minister Angelino Alfano.