(CNN) At least 59 people, including an infant, children and several women, died after a wooden boat carrying migrants broke up on rocks off the coast of Calabria, Say Italian authorities.
The death toll is preliminary and likely to rise. Bad weather in this part of the Mediterranean is hampering search efforts by increasing the debris field.
The first three bodies washed up on the beach near Staccato di Cutro in southern Italy around 4.40am local time on Sunday.
The ship left the Turkish city of Izmir three or four days ago with 140 to 150 people on board, Portal reported.
Around 80 people were rescued from the water clinging to parts of the boat, the Italian fire service told CNN. The survivors were from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, they added.
The preliminary death toll of 58 could rise as bad weather increases the debris field, according to a local official.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni blamed human traffickers. “It is criminal to launch a boat that is only 20 meters long with 200 people on board in bad weather,” she said in a statement. “It is inhumane to trade the lives of men, women and children for the price of a ticket under the false perspective of safe travel.”
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi added that new measures must be taken to reduce such dangerous trips. “It is important to proceed with every possible initiative to halt departures and discourage crossings in any way that exploits the illusory mirage of a better life,” he said in a statement.
Meloni made stopping migrant boats a priority of her far-right government. This week Parliament passed new laws making it harder for NGOs to carry out rescue operations.
Speaking in Vatican City on Sunday, Pope Francis said of the victims of the shipwreck: “I pray for each of them, for those who are missing and for the other migrants who have survived. I give thanks to those who help them and to those who do help them. May the Virgin Mary help these brothers and sisters.”
Police officers stand on the beach where bodies were found. One survivor was arrested on human trafficking charges.
UNHCR records show that so far in 2023, 11,874 people have arrived in Italy by sea, including 678 in Calabria.
Typically arrivals are from African countries rather than the Middle East and Asia, with most boats departing from Libya.
Only 8.3% of the arrivals are from Pakistan, 6.7% from Afghanistan and 0.7% from Iran. The rest are mostly from Africa, with 17.3% of arrivals coming from Ivory Coast alone and 13.1% from Guinea. Other African nations, including North African countries, make up the rest.
The deadliest migratory route is the central Mediterranean route, which has killed at least 20,334 people since 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project.