What Should We Ask The Ghost Boat Smugglers?
Notes From the Field
Today is the delayed hearing in the trial of Measho Tesfamariam, one of the smugglers charged in Italy as part of Operation Tokhla. He’s among the last sources we know had contact with the people of the Ghost Boat.
We’ve been trying to interview him for a while but, as we outlined in a recent update, access has been restricted by the courts until after he is sentenced. By the end of today—hopefully—we find out whether we can go ahead and organize a meeting. It’s possible that there’s another hearing next week, so we’re not sure what the timeline will be right now. Either way, Gianni Cipriano is on the case in Italy.
So what do we hope to understand by talking to Measho? Reader Mohamed Youssouf makes a good point: Will the interview yield any new information? Measho was, after all, interviewed after his initial arrest by L’Espresso, in which he laid out his case and distanced himself from whatever happened to the boat. Why would we expect him to say anything different this time?
There are a few reasons we’re optimistic. First, we know that initial interview was problematic in a few ways—not least because it presumed that the 243 people died, and focused on Measho as the person responsible for that. The situation, as we’ve come to understand it, is a lot more complicated.
More importantly, perhaps, there are specific operational details we need to understand that have not been shared before—that last interview, after all, wasn’t actually about trying to find the occupants of the boat.
Finally, our contact so far with Measho suggests he wants to talk and may have useful information.
Still, let’s see where it takes us. We’d love your suggestions of questions. dangersquirrel offered a few interesting suggestions of how we could approach it. We can’t guarantee that answers will be forthcoming, but there may be something you’ve spotted that is worth chasing.
This Just In
If you haven’t caught the latest episode, go check it out now. In it, we try to understand why cases like Ghost Boat are so easily ignored when others— such as the disappearance Air Malaysia flight 370—command hundreds of millions of dollars for search and recovery operations, and huge amounts of global media attention. Can it be as simple, and saddening, as the idea that breaking through the refugee barrier requires everything to be as shocking and graphic as the death of Alan Kurdi?
“The Fact Is, Lives Don’t Matter Equally”
Questions and Conversations
Going back to the subject of Measho, a few readers already posed questions recently about statements he has made in the past. David Phares wondered whether we can consider the idea that there was no satellite phone on board to be legit—maybe they had one after all? The answer, according to Eric Reidy is probably not.
Meanwhile Cyril Chen pointed out an inconsistency in that original interview that might suggest maybe the boat left from a different location—not Tripoli or Zuwarah, but the Libyan city of al-Khums. It’s something we would like to confirm, but our instincts at the moment suggest it’s a translation error: Zuwarah is in the district of Khoms. We absolutely need to verify that, though, since it could change the game significantly.
Further Reading
This week Bobbie Johnson had the honor of giving a short talk about Ghost Boat and digital storytelling to the BBC, explaining how the project came to be. One of the other presenters, Manveen Rana, had her own refugee story to tell: a great 15-part podcast following her journey with a Syrian family looking for safety in Europe. Listen in.
We’ll have more updates once we know where we stand with the Italian prison system.
Onward.
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