Shipwreck kills 59 migrants off coast of Italian resort
‘It is spectacle one never wants. The sea continues to give back bodies, including women and children’
ITALY was last night facing its deadliest migrant tragedy in a decade after almost 60 died as their vessel “disintegrated” on the rocks of a tourist resort during a Mediterranean storm.
About 150 from Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia packed into the wooden boat that had sailed from Turkey four days earlier before hitting bad weather as it approached Calabria.
Among the 59 confirmed dead, 12 were children, including a newborn, and 33 were women. It was the highest toll from a single migrant boat sinking since 2013, when 359 died. As bodies washed up on the beach a local dignitary described “a gruesome sight ... that stays with you for all your life”.
“It is a spectacle one would never want to see. The sea continues to give back bodies, including women and children,” Antonio Ceraso, the mayor of Cutro, told reporters, with his voice cracking.
Fishermen joined the rescue operation led by emergency responders, and 80 survivors had been pulled alive from the water by yesterday afternoon, authorities said.
At least 20 survivors were in hospital last night and one person was arrested on migrant trafficking charges, police said.
Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s hardline prime minister, expressed her “deep sorrow” for the disaster.
She quickly blamed human traffickers, saying it was “inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of a ticket paid by them for the false prospect of a safe journey”. Her government has tightened migration laws since being elected last year, with tough new measures for sea rescue charities, limiting the number of people they can save at sea.
It comes amid a surge in migrant arrivals to Italy, with this year’s total of 12,667 already twice that of the same period last year. The numbers dwarf Britain’s own small boats crisis, with 45,728 people crossing the English Channel to the UK last year.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, last night called for progress on a stalled reform of EU rules on providing asylum and distributing migrants around Europe.
It is not known exactly how many people were on board the rickety fishing boat, which is believed to have set sail from Izmir.
An EU surveillance plane reportedly spotted the boat the previous night and flagged it to Italian authorities, but rescue attempts were impeded by rough seas. Few of the children on board are believed to have survived.
GIORGIA MELONI, Italy’s Right-wing prime minister, condemned peopletraffickers last night as her hardline policy against migrant boats came under close scrutiny following the deadliest shipwreck in a decade.
At least 59 people died after their wooden boat from Turkey broke apart on rocks as they approached the Calabrian coastline, near Crotone. They included twin children found in the water and a baby whose tiny body washed up on the beach.
Eighty people were rescued, but many are still feared missing.
Ms Meloni, from the Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, expressed “deep sorrow” for lives lost.
She also pledged to continue cracking down on migrant traffickers, calling it “inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of a ticket paid to them on the false prospect of a safe journey”.
Opposition parties and rescue charities quickly heaped blame on Italy’s government for not doing more to avert the disaster, having recently imposed tough new measures against sea rescue charities that limits the number of people they can save at sea.
The law passed by Italy’s parliament last week requires rescue ships to request access to a port and sail to it “without delay” after a rescue, preventing them from staying at sea and looking for other migrant boats in distress as in the past.
“Once again, the umpteenth time, we are mourning the unjust deaths of those searching for a better future, fleeing from war and poverty, while politics, in Italy and Europe, thinks about how to resolve the matter with walls and restrictions for NGOS,” said Save the Children’s Filippo Ungaro.
“Stopping, blocking and hindering the work of NGOS will have only one effect: the death of vulnerable people,” said Spanish migrant rescue charity Open Arms. Matteo Piantedosi, Italy’s interior minister, had last week boasted about how new agreements with Libya and Tunisia had “averted the arrival” of more than 20,000 refugees. However, 12,667 people have reached Italy so far in 2023, twice that of the same period last year.
And with fewer rescue ships in the
Mediterranean due to increased fines and operating costs related to the new restrictions, when shipwrecks do happen, a timely rescue is far less likely, critics said. Yesterday’s tragedy was the deadliest single shipwreck since 2013.
Mr Piantedosi was en route to the tourist resort in Calabrian, where the drownings happened yesterday, to help coordinate rescue and recovery efforts.
Meanwhile Roberto Occhiuto, president of the Calabria region, put the focus on the European Union for failing to do more while those living where migrants arrive are faced with the grim reality on their shores.
“What has the EU done in these years? Where is the Europe that should guarantee safety and legality?” Mr Occhiuto asked.
Ursula von der Leyen, the EU president, called for Europe to redouble efforts to take action on migration and asylum in the central Mediterranean.
Pope Francis also urged more protections for migrants, saying in his weekly address to crowds in St Peter’s Square in Rome that he was praying for “every one of them, for the missing and the other surviving migrants”.
Sergio Mattarella, the Italian president, urged Europe not to remain indifferent, noting that many of the refugees were fleeing hardship in Iran, Syria and Afghanistan.
In images released by the Italian coastguard, timbers from the shipwreck were scattered along 200 metres of coastline and the destroyed hull could be seen crashing against the beach in high waves. At least 20 survivors were admitted to hospital and one person was arrested on migrant trafficking charges, police said.