The Italian police have arrested a man suspected, and are investigating two others, of having been the human traffickers in charge of the wooden fishing boat that had left Izmir four days ago and that yesterday, when it was about to reach the coast of the Calabrian coasts, broke in two. This morning other bodies have been recovered, so the victims amount to 62 people. There are still dozens of missing people, since it is estimated that some 170 people were traveling on the sailboat. Some eighty migrants have survived, but due to bad weather conditions, rescue units have little hope of finding any more shipwrecked alive in a tragedy that has shocked Italy.
Among the dead thrown out by the sea are several children, including a newborn baby and two twins a few years old. It is one of the worst shipwrecks in recent years. This morning, the beach of Steccato di Cutro, 30 kilometers from the city of Crotona, woke up with the remains of the 20-meter boat, in addition to the migrants’ belongings, including a girl’s pink shoe, backpacks, toys and some life jackets.
“We are following a 21-year-old Afghan woman who has seen her husband die, she was unable to save him with her. They had just married. In these cases the sense of guilt also enters. Why do I and he doesn’t?” Lavinia Tuccimei, a Red Cross psychologist who is assisting survivors, explained to La Repubblica. Everyone has lost a family member. An Afghan, who left the country due to the persecution of the Taliban, has seen his entire family die, his wife and three of his children. A 12-year-old boy has been left without his parents, without three brothers and without three other relatives.
According to Doctors Without Borders (MSF), many of the victims are Afghan nationals, but also Iraqis and Pakistanis. The route from Turkey to Italy is unknown, but has nevertheless been consistent in recent years by people who want to avoid getting stranded in Greek migrant camps or the difficult journey through the Balkans. In 2022, arrivals from Turkey accounted for around 15% of total sea arrivals to Italy, most of them migrants fleeing Afghanistan, and experts warn this route could become more important after the massive earthquake. “Migrants had already arrived, but there had never been a tragedy of these dimensions,” lamented the mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso.
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. “We don’t know exactly what happened and it’s hard to lift your finger, but to prevent these things from happening, a proactive search mechanism is needed, both on this route that has grown in recent years and in the Central Mediterranean alongside Libya. If there were more resources, these tragedies would surely be greatly reduced,” MSF mission chief Juan Matías Gil said at a press conference.
In Italy, all the political forces have raised their voices to demand that the EU take measures so that more tragedies do not happen again. It has even been requested by the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who believes it is essential that Brussels assume “the specific responsibility of governing the migratory phenomenon to allege it from human traffickers.” There, 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 stalled for years by divisions in European capitals. But when asked about this shipwreck this morning, the spokespersons for the commission limited themselves to recalling the proposals on the table and that the Commission is ready to “advance on migration at the legislative level.”
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, as well as 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”.
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.