5 Drowned in illegal boat capsize

TIRANA, Oct 20 – An overcrowded boat carrying illegal migrants capsized Sunday in a lake in southern Albania, drowning a woman and her 3-month-old baby, police said. Twenty-four other migrants were rescued, including a pregnant woman.
The small fishing boat was carrying 13 people when it sank just 60 meters from the shore Sunday evening. At the same time, another boat was also taking migrants to Xarre village, from where they would illegally cross on foot over the border into Greece. They chose to cross the lake by boat to avoid the national road regularly checked by police.
The dead woman, 22-year old woman, Elvira Jaho and her baby, died while her husband was among the survivors. The family was from Lapardha, Berat district, according to officials.
They were living in Greece as immigrants but only the husband had proper documents. The family had returned to Albania after Elvira Jaho’s brother had been killed in Greece.
The migrants told police they were charged 1,000 Euros, to be paid upon their arrival in Greece.
On Monday one teenager was still missing.
Police reported, despite their search-and-rescue efforts, that they had found no trace of Ndricim Myftari, 18, thought to have been with 13 other illegal migrants in the small fishing boat that sank Sunday.
Police said they had identified four organizers of the illegal trafficking but they remained at large.