Italy Inquiry points to coastguard responsibility for sinking migrant boat

Italy: Inquiry points to coastguard responsibility for sinking migrant boat

Why was the Summer Love, a boat laden with migrants that Frontex spotted off Italy on the evening of February 25, only rescued six hours later after running aground on a shoal? Three high-ranking officials of the Guardia di Finanza, the Italian customs police, have to explain themselves to this shipwreck, in which 94 people lost their lives. And examined by journalists from Le Monde, Lighthouse Reports, El Pais, Sky News, Domani and the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Three months after the tragedy, the circumstances of the shipwreck are becoming clearer and the Italian government’s version is becoming clear. “Frontex has not issued an emergency notice,” defended the European Coast Guard Giorgia Meloni on March 4. However, a Frontex plane warned local authorities of its possible presence aboard the ship, according to a confidential report sent to Italy’s Coast Guard and Interior Ministry several hours before the sinking.

Bad weather

The Frontex device tracked the Summer Love, alerted the Italian authorities to the intensity of the wind and transmitted live images of the boat to Italy about eight hours before the sinking. However, according to a 2019 recommendation from the European Court of Human Rights, boats carrying “refugees, asylum seekers and migrants” should “be considered as boats in distress” as they are “invariably overloaded and not very suitable, particularly for a long voyage “. when the sea is rough”.

The weather was particularly bad that night. When the boat put out to intercept at 3:30 a.m. on February 26, while Frontex had reported it at 10:26 p.m., two Customs Police patrol boats even had to turn back “due to the weather conditions”. Without the Coast Guard command center based in Rome raising an alarm.

A rescue mission is only triggered half an hour later. Too late. In the meantime, around 2 p.m., the smugglers managed to restart the boat’s engine, which had been switched off since February 24 due to overheating. But they have veered off course and the Summer Love, whose hold is full of migrants, crashes her hull on a shoal near Cutro Beach in Calabria. Frontex underestimated an emergency? Negligence of the Italian authorities? Crotone prosecutors must decide.