ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Over 50 migrants, including a baby just a few months old, died after their boat broke apart in a storm at sea off the coast of southern Italy’s Calabria region on Sunday, Italian media reported, as the number of fatalities is expected to rise.
Italy’s state channel Rai News reported said that 80 people were rescued while 59 corpses were found along the shore, including 33 women and 12 children. It added that the overloaded boat broke in two in the violent waves at sea as it was approaching the coast of Crotone.
It is unclear where the boat originated from but local news reports suggest that the boat left the Turkish port of Izmir four days ago, carrying around 200 migrants from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria.
Many others are still missing and the death toll is expected to rise.
The survivors of the tragic boat wreck are reportedly all under the age of 30, with 21 of them hospitalized. Those in stable conditions are being sheltered at an asylum seeker center.
Italy’s rescue services said that the alarm was sound in the early hours of the day, with rescue efforts still underway.
Video footage of the wreckage shows parts of the boat being washed up along the shore as survivors wrap themselves in blankets.
“There had been landings but never a tragedy like this,” mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso, told Rai. “The sea keeps returning the bodies, it is something you would never want to see”, he added.
One of the survivors told Italian media that an explosion on board had caused the boat to snap in two, adding that some of the corpses have burns on them. The claims have not been confirmed.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “deep sorrow” for the incident, blaming the tragedy on smugglers. Meloni was elected last year mainly due to her pledge to contain the flow of migrants to Italy.
“It is criminal to put a boat that is barely 20 metres long out to sea with as many as 200 people on board and with bad weather forecast,” she said in a statement.
President of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said she was “deeply saddened” by the incident.
I am deeply saddened by the terrible shipwreck off the coast of Calabria.
— Ursula von der Leyen (@vonderleyen) February 26, 2023
The resulting loss of life of innocent migrants is a tragedy.
All together, we must redouble our efforts on the Pact on Migration & Asylum and on the Action Plan on the Central Mediterranean.
Just a few days before, Meloni’s right-wing government pushed through parliament a new law on rescuing migrants which obliges aid ships to rescue one person at a time.
The route in the Mediterranean Sea is considered to be the most perilous journey for those seeking asylum in Europe. A large number of those fleeing poverty and war cross from Africa and the Middle East via Italy in hopes for a better life on the European continent.
Updated at 6:56 with new death toll.
