75 Africans die in Mediterranean, boat survivors say

GENEVA (Reuters) - Around 75 African migrants died in the Mediterranean after their stranded boat ran out of food and water, the United Nations said Friday, quoting the only five survivors of what it called a "shocking tragedy."

The mainly Eritrean migrants boarded a small boat from Tripoli, Libya for the crossing three weeks ago, and were passed by many vessels which failed to help after it ran out of fuel just three days into the trip, it said.

"A few days later water and food ran out. As thirst and hunger set in, people started dying, one by one, as the boat drifted in the sea," spokesman Andrej Mahecic of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) told a news briefing.

"As passengers died, the survivors threw them into the sea," he said. Maltese authorities had reported finding seven bodies believed to be from the boat.

Italian customs found the boat Thursday, although a fishing boat had offered some bread and water earlier but left them to their fate, he said.

The five Eritrean survivors -- a child, a woman and three men -- were taken for treatment to the Italian island of Lampedusa, where UNHCR officials interviewed them.

"The survivors are in a very poor health," he said. "They are in appalling condition and it may be some time before we are able to talk to them again."

The tragedy underlines the erosion of the long-standing maritime tradition of rescue at sea, the agency said.

"UNHCR would be very concerned if the hardening of government policies toward boat people has the effect of discouraging ship masters from continuing to honor their international maritime obligations," it said.

The UNHCR has said that Italy's practice of deporting migrant boats, which began in May amid a steady warming of ties with former Italian colony Libya, breaks international conventions on the rights of asylum seekers.

Some 36,900 illegal migrants arrived in Italy by boat last year in search of a better life, a rise of 75 percent compared to 2007, according to the Interior Ministry. Most made landfall on Lampedusa, which lies between Sicily and North Africa.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Jonathan Lynn and Elizabeth Fullerton)