The wooden schooner had left Izmir four days ago with some 150 migrants on board. They were about to reach the Calabrian coast when the wooden boat collided with a rock, just 150 meters from the coast and broke in two. Italy witnessed yesterday one of the worst shipwrecks in recent years, with dozens of corpses expelled by the sea towards the beaches near the city of Crotona. The last official balance spoke of sixty deaths, but it is feared that there are many more. Among the deceased are at least twelve minors, a newborn baby and two twins a few years old whose bodies were recovered at sea.
Some eighty people survived the tragedy, some of them swimming towards the coast. Twenty of them were taken to Crotona hospital, but they were not in critical condition. Most are from countries like Iran, Pakistan or Afghanistan. On dry land, they waited silently through tears of pain. A woman, with a broken nose, was screaming the name of her dead son, according to the Italian press that she was able to access the scene. The coast guard reported 120 people on board yesterday, but survivors said there were at least 200, so it is possible that there were at least a hundred victims. Some of the bodies appeared in the morning on the beach in the town of Cutro, covered by white cloth, and, according to the carabinieri, they stretched for several kilometers. “When we reached the point of the shipwreck we saw corpses floating everywhere, and we rescued two men who were dragging a child. Unfortunately, he was dead, ”explained Dr. Laura de Paoli.
It is very rare that a shipwreck of this type has occurred off the coast of Crotona. The route from Turkey to Italy is unknown, but has nevertheless been consistent in recent years. In 2022, arrivals from Turkey accounted for around 15% of total sea arrivals to Italy, most of them migrants fleeing Afghanistan. The Italian authorities were already aware of the existence of this vessel since yesterday, when they were alerted by a helicopter from a Frontex agency patrol, and it is most likely that a gust of wind would have diverted the vessel to this point. "Migrants had already arrived, but there had never been a tragedy of these dimensions," lamented the mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso.
Everything happens a few days after the Italian Parliament endorsed the new migration policy of the Government of Giorgia Meloni, which greatly complicates the rescues carried out by NGOs in the Mediterranean. The government decree forces humanitarian ships to set course for ports far away from the rescue zones and allows the blockade of the ships to be imposed, in addition to administrative fines for the captain of up to 50,000 euros. This week one of these ships, the Geo Barents of Doctors Without Borders, has been blocked for the first time for not having provided the "required information".
Under this new regulation, humanitarian ships must head to the assigned port without delay after the first rescue carried out, so they cannot carry out other operations as was the case up to now. They must sail for days to ports in central or northern Italy such as Ancona or La Spezia even when there are bad sea conditions, in measures that, according to the organizations, will only cause more deaths in the Mediterranean by preventing multiple rescues and separating them for days. of the critical areas.
Yesterday, humanitarian organizations, but also the United Nations, revealed that the shipwreck occurs at a time when there are hardly any rescue boats in the Mediterranean, while the arrivals of migrants do not stop. According to government data, more than 12,600 people have arrived in Italy so far this year, more than double the number in the same period last year. The UN Refugee Agency (Acnur) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) yesterday stressed the need for rescue mechanisms from the European Union. "In a historical context characterized by people forced to flee from conflicts and persecution, it is more necessary than ever to strengthen the rescue capacity, which is still insufficient, to prevent tragedies like this," said Chiara Cardoletti, UNHCR representative in Italy. “Let them fall on the conscience of those who prevent bailouts by law. Inhuman. Incomprehensible”, published the NGO Open Arms.
Meloni, however, blamed the tragedy on human traffickers, assuring that it is "criminal to put a 20-meter boat into the sea with 200 people on board and with adverse weather forecasts." "It is inhumane to trade the lives of men, women and children for the price of a ticket under the false prospect of safe travel," he said in a statement.
For her part, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, urged the states to "redouble their efforts" to reach an agreement on the EU's migration policy, a reform that has been stuck for years due to divisions in the capitals. European.
