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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italian rescuers comb beaches for bodies after deadly shipwreck

Italy's coastguard on Monday searched the sea and beaches for bodies following a shipwreck off Calabria, as authorities tried to identify the dead and the government's migrant policy came under scrutiny.

Italian rescuers comb beaches for bodies after deadly shipwreck
Search and rescue divers from the Italian fire brigade at work after a migrant boat shipwreck on February 27, 2023 near the Le Castella beach in Isola di Capo Rizzuto, south of Crotone. (Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

The overloaded wooden boat broke up and sank early Sunday in stormy seas off Italy’s southern coast, with bodies, shoes and debris washing up along a long stretch of shoreline.

The death toll rose on Monday to 62 people, a coast guard official confirmed, and that number looked likely to increase.

READ ALSO: EU chief urges asylum reform after 60 migrants drown off Italian coast

Sergio di Dato, head of the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) team offering psychological support to the survivors, said there were cases of children orphaned in the disaster.

“One Afghan 12-year-old boy lost his entire family, all nine of them — four siblings, his parents and other very close relatives,” he told journalists.

At Le Castella, where a 15th-century fortress dominates the shoreline, an AFP journalist witnessed the coastguard recovering the body of a woman who looked to be in her early 20s.

 ‘Many missing minors’

Local officials said the search was ongoing for around 20 people believed to be still missing, though survivors have given differing accounts of how many people were originally on the boat.

Forensic police set about identifying the victims, issuing an email address to which relatives searching for loved ones could send distinguishing details, from eye and hair colour to tattoos or piercings.

Italian coastguard officers standing near a body recovered after a migrant boat shipwreck February 27, 2023 near the Le Castella beach in Isola di Capo Rizzuto, south of Crotone. (Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

Save the Children charity said on Twitter it was supporting survivors from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria, including 10 minors who had been travelling with their families.

“There are many missing minors,” it wrote.

The charity said survivors described how “during the night, near the coast, they heard a loud boom, the boat broke and they all fell into the water.”

The survivors were “in shock… some say they saw relatives fall into the water and disappear, or die”.

The boat was reported to have set sail from Izmir in Turkey last week. Three suspected human traffickers were arrested and police were searching for a fourth, media reports said Monday.

READ ALSO: ‘More will drown’: Italy accused of breaking international law on migrant rescues

David Morabito, a rescue diver in Calabria, told Rai state broadcaster he had recovered the bodies of young twins from the water.

“When you see the little, lifeless bodies of children, those images pierce your heart,” Morabito said.

“So many children dead. A tragedy,” he added.

Italian officials handle coffins containing the bodies of the people who drowned in a shipwreck off Calabria’s coast on Sunday, February 27th. (Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

The disaster has further fuelled the debate in Italy over search and rescue measures for saving migrants who run into trouble on the Central Mediterranean route, which is the world’s deadliest.

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, elected in September, has pledged to end migrant arrivals.

She said Sunday the government was “committed to preventing (migrant boat) departures and, with them, this type of tragedy”, while her interior minister Matteo Paintedosi simply said “they must not set sail”.

These reactions were “a sad buck-passing, yet another slap in the face of the victims and survivors of this tragedy”, MSF Italy’s programmes director Marco Bertotto said Monday.

“Sea rescue must not be confused with illegal immigration. We need patrolling on the high seas and coordination,” he told journalists.

Meloni’s government pushed through a controversial law last week that forces migrant aid charities to perform only one life-saving rescue mission at a time before heading directly to ports, which are often far away.

Critics say the measure violates international law and will result in more people drowning.

According to the interior ministry nearly 14,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, up from 5,200 over the same period last year.

Shipwreck debris on the beach at Steccato di Cutro, south of Crotone. (Photo by Alessandro SERRANO / AFP)

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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy migrant shipwreck toll at 34 as more bodies found

Italy's coastguard said Friday it had found another 14 bodies after a migrant shipwreck off the southern coast earlier this week, taking the confirmed death toll to 34.

Italy migrant shipwreck toll at 34 as more bodies found

More than 60 people had been reported missing after the sailing boat sank off the coast of Calabria overnight Sunday-Monday, with 11 people rescued.

“Today 14 bodies were recovered.. a total of 34 bodies have been recovered,” the coastguard said in a statement.

It said air and sea searches continued for the missing.

The coastguard had on Thursday reported another 12 bodies had been found, including women and children.

Medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said earlier this week that survivors had reported 66 people missing, including at least 26 children.

They had set off from Turkey and sank around 120 nautical miles off the coast of Calabria. Afghan families were among the missing, MSF said.

Ten bodies were found in a separate shipwrecked migrant boat on Monday off the Italian island of Lampedusa, according to German aid group ResQship.

Some 3,155 migrants died or disappeared in the Mediterranean last year, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration.

More than 1,000 have died or are missing so far this year.

The Central Mediterranean — the area between North Africa and Italy and Malta — is the deadliest known migration route in the world, accounting for 80 percent of the deaths and disappearances in the Mediterranean.

Many migrants set off by boat from Tunisia or Libya, with Italy often their first port of call.

Arrivals have dropped considerably this year, with almost 24,500 people landing in Italy so far, compared to more than 58,600 in the same period in 2023, according to the interior ministry.

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