289 AND COUNTING:"THE BIGGEST SEA TRAGEDY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA SINCE WORLD WAR II."

  

They were 500 African migrants believed to have been aboard a boat that sank off the island last Thursday. The tragedy amounted to Italy's deadliest migrant shipwreck and, according to Lampedusa Mayor Giusi Nicolini, "the biggest sea tragedy in the Mediterranean Sea since World War II."The survivors -- 155 of them, mainly from Eritrea, who swam for their lives and were lucky enough to be rescued by fishermen and the Coast Guard are waiting in a cramped migrant detention center. It was built to hold about 250 people but has held many times that in recent days. Each day, more people are leaving on ferries for other detention centers along the Italian coast.The traumatic firsthand accounts are helping build a picture of why the boat caught fire and ended up on the seabed of the Mediterranean with most of its passengers buried below deck.One of them, 30-year-old Germani Nagassi,said he'll never forget what he saw."For five hours we were floating, using the dead bodies of our companions," he said. "There is nothing worse than this. There were many children. There was a mother with her four children, a mother with an infant, all lost at sea. My mind is scarred and in a terrible condition."Its so sad to read or come across stories like this.A lot of them left back their families in search of a better life  and ended up dying.May their souls rest in peace...Amen