The number of migrants killed in the shipwreck that occurred early Sunday near the Italian town of Crotone, in Calabria, in southern Italy, has risen to 62, and the search for the missing continues on Monday.
The search operations are in charge of the Port Authority and the Financial Guard and since the early hours of the morning, in addition to divers, helicopters have been used.
According to survivors, the boat that left the Turkish coast four days ago had about 200 migrants from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria on board.
This morning three more bodies were recovered, one of a man on the beach near the place where the shipwreck occurred, another was located in the sea, some 400 meters from the coast, by a Coast Guard patrol boat and the third was found in Le Castella, near the scene of the accident, according to local media.
Among the fatalities registered so far, 14 are minors, including several children and a newborn and 33 women, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
Of the 81 survivors, 19 had to be admitted to hospital, while the rest were transferred to the reception center in the nearby town of Isola di Capo Rizutto.
According to the coast guard, the boat broke up on the rocks a few meters from the coast, at a time when the sea was very rough.
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, assured that the Government is committed to avoiding the departure of ships in conditions that lead to tragedies like the one on Sunday, and promised to continue doing so, “which above all requires the greatest cooperation of the States of departure and originally”.
For his part, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, called for “a strong commitment from the international community to eliminate the root causes of migratory flows: wars, persecution, terrorism, poverty, inhospitable territories due to climate change.”
Mattarella also called on the European Union to provide greater assistance to Italy in managing migration flows.
This shipwreck came just days after parliament approved controversial new rules on rescuing immigrants, formulated by the far-right dominated executive.
The new law forces humanitarian ships to carry out only one rescue at a time, which critics say increases the risk of death in the central Mediterranean, considered the world’s most dangerous crossing for migrants.
Italy’s geographic location makes it a top destination for asylum seekers moving from North Africa to Europe, and Rome has long complained about the number of arrivals on its territory.
In reaction to this tragedy, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, called on member states to speed up an agreement on migration policy.
According to the Interior Ministry, almost 14,000 migrants have landed in Italy since the beginning of the year, up from about 5,200 during the same period last year and 4,200 in 2021.
Source: TSF
