ROME — An Italian newspaper says it has found the site of a "phantom shipwreck," believed to be the graveyard of some 283 illegal immigrants who tried to reach Italy in 1996 and whose fate has been hushed up for years.
The ship sank in the early hours of Dec. 26 in international waters off the southeastern tip of Sicily, near the fishing town of Portopalo, but was never found.
Three weeks ago, the identity card of one of the victims was caught in a fisherman's net, and the newspaper La Repubblica used an underwater robot to resume the search.
Friday, the paper said it had discovered the wreck.
Giovanni Maria Bellu, the journalist who broke the story, said in an interview that the wreck was surrounded by skeletons.
He said many people in Portopalo knew the ship had sunk, but no one had alerted the authorities.
"The first thing we discovered was that many bodies had been found, but the fishermen of Portopalo would throw them back in the water so they would not have to go through any bureaucratic hassle," he said.
"I think it is impossible that local authorities did not know about it. I don't want to accuse anyone ... but I know that prosecutors in (nearby) Syracuse have opened an inquiry into possible negligence following our report," he said.
The ship, far too small for the presumed number of passengers, lies in some 300 feet of water between Malta and Sicily. Most of the victims are thought to be from Sri Lanka or Pakistan.
Skeletons on the seabed
Video images released Friday, filmed by La Repubblica, showed skeletons lying on the seabed close to a boat with a large gash in its side.
"What really shocked me is that the video of the wreck gives evidence of the story related by survivors," Bellu said.
The sinking was reported four days later by survivors caught by police as they sought to enter Greece. Bellu said they were not immediately believed, although police alerted Italian authorities.
The survivors said they had been forced to leave the ship they were sailing on, the Iohan, during a storm and board a smaller ferry that should have taken them to Sicily. Many refused, but said the Iohan's Lebanese captain had threatened them with a gun.
As the ferry began to sink, the Iohan sailed closer, but the ships collided and the ferry went under.
The ship's name has also been spelled Yiohan.
When approached by the Pakistani embassy in May 1997, the Italian Foreign Ministry said searches had yielded no results on what it termed a "supposed shipwreck," Bellu said.
Eugenio Sicurezza, an admiral with the Italian coast guard, said the initial search had been thorough.
"It's not true that we did not give enough consideration to the event," he told RAI television. "After we were alerted from Greece, eight speedboats and even a plane searched the area ... but did not find any signs of a shipwreck."
A trial of the Lebanese captain and 13 crew members started in Syracuse in May but has now been put on hold until police investigate the newspaper report, Bellu said.
As it now appears the accident happened in international waters, the Italian government officially has no jurisdiction and may scrap the trial, he added.
"Nevertheless, I think the Italian government has the moral duty to recover the bodies anyway," he said.