It is an all too familiar story --- boatfuls of hopeful immigrants perishing in the deadly waters off the Italian coast.
Italian Fisherman Raimondo Vetti:
(SOUNDBITE) (Italian) (AUDIO AS INCOMING) FISHERMEN, RAIMONDO VETTI, SAYING:
"It's time to stop this situation, it's twenty-five years we have put up with this, it is time to stop it, we are tired."
But this time, the numbers are staggering.
An estimated 300 Eritrean and Somali men, women and children, -- seeking to start anew in Europe -- drown when their boat carrying around 500 sank.
155 were pulled from the sea alive Thursday by the Italian Coast Guard, but little hope remains in finding more survivors.
Sofia Mohammed of the Embassy of Somalia in Rome says it shocked the Somali community.
"For goodness' sake, you can't even imagine. There is no need to even ask me."
The tragedy off the island of Lampedusa posed a predicament -- where to put the bodies recovered.
More tha
