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MIGRANT CRISIS

Italy’s coastguard races to rescue 1,300 migrants in the Mediterranean

Italian coastguard authorities were rushing to save some 1,300 migrants in the Central Mediterranean on Friday, just two weeks after a deadly shipwreck killed more than 70 people.

Published: 10 March 2023 18:11 CET
Italian coast guard at sea
Italy's coastguard was involved in emergency rescue operations on Friday, March 10th. Photo by Alessandro FUCARINI / AFP

Photographs released by the coastguard showed three overcrowded boats heading towards the southern region of Calabria.

The massive rescue operation came as Italy’s right-wing government defended itself from accusations that it failed to prevent a deadly shipwreck that killed over 70 people last month.

Friday’s operations were “particularly complex due to the large number of people present on board the drifting boats”, the coastguard said.

The navy said one of its ships was “proceeding at maximum speed” to help the coastguard, which it said was “in difficulty”.

READ ALSO: Italian PM vows to crack down on traffickers at migrant shipwreck site

Rescuers were assisting one boat with an estimated 500 people on board some 70 nautical miles (129.64 km) south off Crotone, the coastguard said.

Others were assisting two other boats further south, off Roccella Ionica.

At least 73 people died in a shipwreck near Crotone in the early hours of February 26th, after an overcrowded boat which had set off from Turkey sank in stormy weather.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has recently denied responsibility for the disaster amid accusations it treated the boat rescue as a law enforcement issue rather than a humanitarian emergency.

READ ALSO: ‘Political stunt’: Protests as Italian ministers visit deadly migrant shipwreck site

Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, which won national elections last year, has promised to curb arrivals, but Italy has recently seen a sharp rise in the number of migrants attempting to reach its shores.

The interior ministry says more than 17,500 people have arrived by sea so far this year – almost three times the number for the same period last year.

The number of arrivals through the Central Mediterranean route rose by 116 percent in January and February compared to the same period last year, EU border agency Frontex said Friday.

And the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa, which sits some 113 kilometres off the North-African coast, recorded 41 boat arrivals on Thursday, a record number for one day, according to Italian media reports.

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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.

Published: 22 June 2024 11:12 CEST
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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