SAINT RAPHAEL, France, Feb 17 (Reuters) - A rusty freighter carrying about 1,000
Kurdish migrants, including hundreds of children, was deliberately run aground off the
French Riviera early on Saturday by human cargo smugglers, police said.

No-one was injured although many of the Kurds, thought to be from Iraq and Turkey, were
dehydrated and living in squalor aboard the Cambodian-registered vessel, the "East Sea."

The ship, which had been at sea for seven days after setting out from Turkey, hit rocks
around 20 metres (yards) offshore near the harbour of Boulouris, midway between the Cote
d'Azur resorts of Cannes and St Tropez.

A combination of poverty, political oppression and the threat of renewed military conflict are
among many motives for thousands of Kurds to plough their life savings into a risky passage
to a promised land.

Although fighting between Turkish troops and the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) in the mainly Kurdish southeast of the country has eased, the threat of renewed
fighting makes the future of the region uncertain.

Furthermore, Turkey's southeastern corner remains the most underdeveloped part of the
country, and in 1997 accounted for only five percent of the country's gross domestic product,
according to official statistics.

Combined with a human-rights record which is the subject of international criticism, the
conditions in the region conspire to persuade thousands of Kurds to pay princely sums to the
human traffickers who promise them a new life.

Doctors and officials were lowered onto the deck by helicopter to check the condition of the
migrants before bringing them down onto the rocks and ashore via ladders.

"They are living on top of one another in horrible conditions, without any hygienic facilities,
without being able to wash themselves," senior government official Daniel Canepa told
reporters after visiting the East Sea.

"I find it absolutely scandalous that people carry out this type of trafficking," he said.

A police spokesman said around 300 children were aboard the ship, including three babies
born during the voyage.

The weather was good at the time of the incident and police said the boat had been driven
ashore on purpose at around 3:30 a.m. (0230 GMT), its engines left running to stop it
heading back out to sea.

The East Sea's captain and crew, reported to be Greek, were said to have fled the vessel
before rescuers arrived.
Police launched a manhunt while investigators said they believed the shipowner might be
Syrian. Canepa vowed to bring all those behind the trafficking to justice.

DREAM DESTINATION

Immigrants have poured into Europe in recent years, hoping for a better, safer life in the
West and willing to pay huge sums of money to smugglers to get them there.

One of the Kurds told reporters on Saturday that the migrants had paid between $500 and
$1,000 for the passage in the East Sea, but he said the living conditions had been appalling.

"We were down in the holds. You couldn't tell if it was night or day. There wasn't even any
room to lie down," he said, speaking in broken English.

Many immigrants have come to Europe in rusty old boats that usually hole up along Italy's
huge coastline. Maritime authorities said they believed the East Sun captain had intended to
make for Italy but had lost his way.

"Some of these people have no idea that they are even in France," local mayor Georges
Jinesta told reporters, pointing to the crowds of Kurds milling along a sandy beach.

A police spokesman said probably all the Kurds would be housed temporarily in a nearby
marine base.

Around 30 Kurds raised the alarm before dawn, swimming ashore and waking up the
resident of a seaside villa. "Help! United Nations," one of their number said, pointing at the
boat.

French Interior Minister Daniel Vaillant vowed to fight the people smuggling.

"This shows how hard we have to struggle against these exploiters of human misery -- the
smugglers. We have to deal with this problem at a European level but France will do all it
can to ensure we are effective," he told France Inter radio.

Concerned at the rising tide of illegal immigrants and human trafficking, EU ministers
agreed earlier this month to step up the pace of harmonising their asylum and immigration
policies.

In pictures: Migrant survivors

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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com