KARONGA, 21 January 2013 (IRIN) - On 20 June 2012, a group of undocumented Ethiopian migrants boarded a boat on the shores of Lake Malawi and headed southwards. A few minutes after departing, the overloaded boat sank, drowning 49 of its passengers.
“From the lake shore, one could see what looked like a piece of paper floating on the lake. But when fishermen, paddling their canoes, went to check it out it turned out to be several human bodies,” recalled Grecian Mbewe, Centre for Human Rights and Rehabilitation district coordinator for Karonga, in northern Malawi.