A new human drama off the Italian coast. At least 59 migrants, including a newborn baby a few months old, died after their boat sank at dawn near the Italian town of Crotone, in Calabria. “As of now, 80 people have been recovered alive, some of whom have managed to make it to shore after the sinking, and 43 corpses have been recovered along the coastline,” said a Coast Guard statement released late in the year. morning.
Since then, the death toll has risen to 59. “Until a few minutes ago the number of confirmed victims was 59,” the mayor of Crotone in Calabria, Vincenzo Voce, told Sky TG-24 news channel at 4 p.m. (1500 GMT). .
“Dozens and dozens drowned, including children, many missing. Calabria is in mourning for this terrible tragedy,” said regional president Roberto Occhiuto in a statement. According to the Coast Guard, the boat was carrying around 120 people and broke on the rocks a few meters from the coast, with firefighters citing “more than 200 people” on board the boat.
Italian police footage shows wood debris scattered over a hundred meters of the beach, where many rescuers and survivors were waiting to be transferred to a reception center.
Expressing her “deep pain”, the head of government, Giorgia Meloni, judged in a press release that it was “criminal to put a boat of barely 20 meters into the sea with 200 people on board and a bad weather forecast”. . “The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them this kind of tragedy, and will continue to do so, requiring above all the greatest collaboration of the States of departure and origin,” assured Giorgia Meloni.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella lamented the sinking in which “dozens of people, including children, lost their lives”. “A large number of these migrants came from Afghanistan and Iran, fleeing very difficult conditions,” added the Head of State, expressing the wish for “a strong commitment from the international community to eliminate the causes of the migrations: wars, persecutions, terrorism, poverty…”
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday called for progress on asylum reform in the European Union after at least 40 migrants died in a shipwreck off the coast of Italy.
After calling the death of these migrants in a tweet a “tragedy” and saying she was “deeply saddened”, Ursula von der Leyen called for “redoubled efforts on the Pact on Migration and Asylum, and on the Central Mediterranean Action Plan”.
The most delicate part of this Pact, which must be concluded before the end of the term of office of the European Parliament in 2024, concerns a better sharing of responsibilities in the reception of asylum seekers between EU countries, an issue which has divided them since the refugee crisis in 2015-2016.
Italy, a country of first entry which has received hundreds of thousands of migrants in recent years, criticizes its EU partners for a lack of solidarity in the distribution of the latter, even if a large number of them leave subsequently the peninsula for other countries.
The head of government, Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia (FDI) party, took over as head of a coalition executive in October after promising to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Italy. The new law forces aid ships to carry out only one rescue at a time, which critics say increases the risk of death in the central Mediterranean, which is considered the world’s most perilous crossing for migrants.
Filippo Grandi, the head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), lamented “another terrible shipwreck”, saying that “the time has come for states to stop debating and agree on fair, effective and shared measures to avoid further tragedies”.
Italy’s location makes it a top destination for asylum seekers crossing from North Africa to Europe, and Rome has long complained about the number of arrivals to its territory. According to the Interior Ministry, nearly 14,000 migrants have landed in Italy since the start of the year, compared to around 5,200 during the same period last year and 4,200 in 2021.
NGOs recover at sea only a small percentage of migrants wishing to arrive in Europe, most being rescued by Coast Guard or Navy vessels. However, the government accuses these NGOs of stimulating the arrival of migrants through their action and encouraging traffickers.
