DESPERATE FOR WORK

Fifty-four people trying to reach Italy from Libya have died of thirst after a 15-day voyage in which their rubber boat gradually deflated, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has said, citing the sole survivor. The agency said on Tuesday that the only survivor, an Eritrean national, was rescued by the Tunisian coastguard in a state of advanced dehydration and clinging to the remains of the boat after being spotted by fishermen the previous night. "The Eritrean said that he left Libya towards the end of June as part of a 55-strong group, half of whom came from Eritrea. "He told us that there were immediately problems on the boat, that unfortunately they weren't even allowed to take a bottle of water and so once they got lost and the voyage went on, people started to feel unwell and die because of the lack of water," Laura Boldrini, a UN spokeswoman, told reporters." (Aljazeera, 10 July) Workers are so desperate for work they are dying of thirst. Where is that notion of "lazy workers" now we wonder? RD