Lost at sea
Sixteen families are grieving in Scotland today, after a helicopter carrying oil rig workers crashed into the sea yesterday and all on board were feared lost.
Just a few days earlier, in the Mediterranean, more than 200 people - perhaps more than 300 -- are feared to have drowned. More than 100 bodies have already been recovered. But you very possibly never heard about it.
They were African migrants, on their way in grossly overloaded rubber dinghies from the coast of Libya, heading for Europe. We don't know their names; their families will probably never know for sure what happened to them.
Why do they do it? They know the risks - they know that over the past decade, thousands have died, trying to make the crossing. Yet still they come.
Listen below to my interview with a migrant from Eritrea, who managed to make the crossing successfully.
(broadcast on Newshour, Ö÷²¥´óÐã World Service, 31 March 2009)
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