ITALY
At least 59 deaths including a baby in migrant boat tragedy off Italian coast Access to the commentsCOMMENTS
By Mark Armstrong with AP • Updated: 26/02/2023 – 21:51
Rescuers recover a body after a migrant boat broke apart in rough seas, at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023cc
Rescuers recover a body after a migrant boat broke apart in rough seas, at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023cc – Copyright Giuseppe Pipita/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved
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Fifty-nine people, including a newborn baby and other children, have died after a wooden sailing boat believed to be carrying refugees crashed against rocks off the coast of Italy’s Calabria region.
According to survivors, there were about 140 to 150 people onboard the boat. Eighty-one people survived, with 20 of them taken to hospital.
“It was a tragedy, this morning, to see those scenes of children given back from the sea, bodies, harrowing scenes,” said Antonio Ceraso, Mayor of Cutro.
Father Rosario Morrone, Parish priest of Botricello, visited the scene: “They have found two bodies also on the beach in my parish. I’ve blessed them but while I was blessing them I asked myself why do we always arrive after death? We should arrive before death.”
Antonino Durso/Antonino Durso/LaPresse
Rescued migrants sit covered in blankets at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023Antonino Durso/Antonino Durso/LaPresse
The vessel is believed to have left Turkey four days ago with people from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan onboard.
A Turkish national has been detained on suspicion of human trafficking, according to the Ansa news agency.
Cleared
The boat is reported to have sailed from TurkeyCleared
In a statement, Prime minister Giorgia Meloni repeated her government’s commitment to “preventing departures and along with them the tragedies that unfold”.
Only a few days ago, the Italian parliament passed a controversial law. It forces rescue ships to carry out only one rescue operation per mission.
According to NGOs, this significantly increases the risk of deaths in the Mediterranean.
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