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The Left to Die Boat

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30/12/2012

BBC Radio 4 - The Left to Die Boat

The tragic story of the African migrants who fled fighting in Libya on an inflatable boat.

Sharon Davis investigates the tragic story of the African migrants who fled fighting in Libya on an inflatable boat.

In March 2011, 72 African migrants were forced onto an inflatable boat by Libyan soldiers in Tripoli. They were desperate to escape the fighting in Libya and hoping for a new life in Europe. Their boat headed for the small Italian island of Lampedusa, only 18 hours away across the Mediterranean. 

There was a NATO naval blockade of Libya at the time and the area was full of military ships and aircraft. Yet, despite a number of sightings, the boat was never rescued. 

Fifteen days later it washed up back on Libya's coast with only 11 survivors on board - two more died soon after. 

In this documentary the survivors tell their story to producer Sharon Davis and she investigates how it was that these people were left to die in a boat in one of the most heavily-monitored seas on earth. 

Producers - Sharon Davis and Geoff Parish.

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