http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-20/asylum-seeker-dies/7043776
Asylum seeker dies after falling from Italian hospital window
Posted about 2 hours ago
RELATED STORY: Eritrean woman tells of Libya to Italy boat journey
MAP: Italy
An Eritrean man who survived a perilous journey across the
Mediterranean by boat to Italy has died after falling from a hospital
window in a night-time escape bid, Italian media has reported.
The 24-year-old, who was rescued from his rickety vessel by the
Italian coastguard earlier in December and brought to the island of
Sardinia, was being treated for scabies in the infectious diseases
ward of a hospital in Cagliari.
In the early hours of Saturday he knotted his sheets together and
tried climb down the side of the building from his third-floor room,
before falling and hitting his head, dying on the spot.
It was not clear why the man was determined to leave undetected.
Hospital staff insisted his room was not locked and his treatment was
almost complete, after which he would have been free to go, the
reports said.
Eritrean migrants picked up from boats and brought to Italy face
relocation along with Syrians and Iraqis to other European countries
as part of a controversial program to share the refugee burden, which
has proven unpopular with people hoping to join family members
elsewhere.
The United Nations said the refugee exodus from Eritrea was being
fuelled by alleged abuses including extrajudicial executions, torture
and forced military conscription that can last decades.
Nearly 85 per cent of new arrivals in Europe come from the world's top
10 refugee-producing countries, according to the UN's refugee agency.
More than 3,620 people have died trying to make the journey by sea
from north Africa in 2015.
AFP
Received on Sat Dec 19 2015 - 20:52:30 EST