The fire service said there were more than 200 people on board the ship, 80 of whom were rescued.
Portal/Giuseppe Pipita
One shipwreck took place this Sunday the 26th on the coast of Italynear the town of Crotone in Calabria, left at least 59 dead migrants, including a baby a few months old. The episode takes place days after a controversial law was passed to rescue migrants at sea. “So far the number of confirmed deaths is 59,” Mayor Vincenzo Voce told Sky news channel TG24. According to rescue teams, the ship was carrying more than 120 people and crashed into some rocks a few meters from shore. According to the regional fire department, more than 200 people were on board. “So far, 80 people have been rescued, some have been able to reach shore after the shipwreck,” the Coast Guard said in a statement. Images released by Italian police show pieces of wood scattered on the beach where rescue teams were headed while those rescued waited to be taken to a reception centre.
A Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the farright party Fratelli d’Italia, spoke of “deep pain” and declared that it was “criminal, a ship only 20 meters long with 200 people on board and with a bad weather forecast (…) The government is committed to Leaving and preventing these kinds of tragedies. And it will continue to do so, most notably calling for greater cooperation from sending and sending countries,” he said in a statement. The President of the Calabria Region, Roberto Occhiuto, published a note lamenting the situation: “Dozens and dozens of drowned people, including children, many missing. Calabria mourns this terrible tragedy.” After the tragedy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen defended the urgency of pressing ahead with the reform of asylum law in the European Union. “There is a need to redouble efforts on the Compact for Migration and Asylum and the Central Mediterranean Action Plan,” he said. For his part, Pope Francis expressed his “pain” and said he was praying “for each individual, for those who are missing and for the other migrants who have survived”.
Sunday’s shipwreck comes just days after Italy’s parliament passed controversial rules to save migrants, backed by the farright government. The new law obliges humanitarian ships to conduct only one rescue per sea voyage. Critics of the measure say the rule increases the risk of death in the central Mediterranean, an area believed to be the world’s most dangerous crossing for migrants. According to the Interior Ministry, almost 14,000 migrants have entered Italy since the beginning of the year, compared to 5,200 in the same period last year and 4,200 in 2021. For Minister Matteo Piantedosi, “the tragedy shows how absolutely necessary it is to fight resolutely against illegal immigration networks”. .
*With information from AFP