Italy: a boat carrying migrants capsizes; 43 dead

ROME (AP) — At least 43 migrants died when their overcrowded wooden boat crashed at dawn on Sunday on reefs just off the coast of Italy, the Italian coast guard said.

“So far, 80 people have been recovered alive – some of whom have come ashore after the sinking – and 43 bodies have been recovered along the shoreline,” the Coast Guard said in a statement shortly before noon.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the migrants were crammed into the 20-metre (66ft) boat in “adverse weather conditions”. In a statement released by his office, he expressed his “deep sadness for the many human lives torn apart by human traffickers”.

“It is inhumane to trade the lives of men, women and children for the ‘price’ of a ticket they pay for the false prospect of safe travel,” Meloni said. , a far-right leader whose government allies include the anti-immigration La Liga Party.

He vowed to use his leadership to press for action against the boat party orchestrated by smugglers and to pressure other European leaders to help Italy to that end.

A piece of the boat, along with piles of splintered wood, lay on the beach at Steccato di Cutro, a stretch of coastline in the Calabria region along the Ionian Sea. Some of the survivors were trying to keep warm, wrapped in colorful blankets or sheets.

A helicopter and motor boats were used for the search, including boats from the fire brigade, border police and coast guard.

A Coast Guard speedboat rescued two men suffering from hypothermia and recovered the body of a child in rough seas, it said in a statement. Fire boats, carrying divers, pulled out 28 bodies, three of which were swept by a strong current away from the wreckage.

The Italian news agency AGI said that among the bodies was that of a baby a few months old.

Pope Francis lamented that there were children among the victims.

The pontiff told parishioners in St. Peter’s Square: “I pray for each of them, for the missing and the other migrants who survived.” He said he also prays for rescuers “and for those who welcome” migrants.

“It’s a huge tragedy,” Crotone Mayor Vincenzo Voce told RAI television. “In solidarity, the city will find places in the cemetery” for the dead.

The reports did not contain details of the nationality of the migrants.

So far it is not known where the boat left, but boats with migrants arriving in Calabria usually depart from the Turkish or Egyptian coasts. Many of these boats arrive on remote stretches of Italy’s southern coast without the support of coastguards or humanitarian aid vessels.