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CATANIA, Sicily (AP) — Prosecutors have arrested the Tunisian captain and a Syrian crew member of a boat that capsized off the coast of Libya with hundreds of people aboard in what may be the deadliest migrant tragedy ever.
An official says the two men were charged with favoring illegal immigration and that the captain was also charged with reckless multiple homicide in relation to the sinking.
The two men were arrested aboard the rescue boat that brought 27 survivors from the shipwreck, which may have killed as many as 900 people, to Italy.
Meanwhile, Italy's prime minister says the organized criminals who are smuggling hundreds of people from Libya are like the slave traders of centuries past--"unscrupulous men who traded human lives."
European leaders are struggling for an adequate response to the unremitting migrant flows and continued instability in Libya. The leaders will hold an emergency summit on Thursday in Brussels.
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APPHOTO ALT107: Survivors of the boat that overturned off the coast of Libya Saturday, wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Bruno Gregoretti, at Catania Harbor, Italy, Monday, April 20, 2015. A smuggler's boat crammed with hundreds of people overturned off the coast of Libya on Saturday as rescuers approached, causing what could be the Mediterranean's deadliest known migrant tragedy. So far rescuers saved 28 people and recovered 24 bodies.(AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino) (20 Apr 2015)
<<APPHOTO ALT107 (04/20/15)££
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