‘Traffickers threw children into the sea’ to try and lighten their boat and escape coastguard before it capsized, killing up to 100 migrants: Claim as Italy PM says gangs are to blame for deaths, not her tough rules
- The wooden vessel smashed into rocky reefs off the coast of Italy on Sunday
- Around 80 have been rescued but officials fear the death toll could top 100
- WARNING: Graphic content
Survivors of Sunday’s deadly migrant shipwreck near the southern Italian coast have accused traffickers of throwing children into the ocean to try and lighten their boat and escape the coastguard, before it capsized killing dozens of people.
The death toll of the tragedy rose to 62, Italian authorities said on Monday, as they laid their bodies out in white bags. There are at least 80 survivors confirmed.
However, officials fear that number could top 100 since some survivors indicated the boat had as many as 200 passengers from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan when it set out from Turkey, United Nations refugee and migration agencies said.
The wooden vessel smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart before dawn on Sunday off the Italian coast. Dozens of people are still missing in the rough waters.
But as rescue workers continue their search, a blame game has broken out in Italy. Some have blamed the country’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgina Meloni and her party’s hardline policy against migrant boats , while she has pointed the finger at ‘inhumane’ human traffickers. Others have blamed the European Union.
The death toll of a migrant shipwreck near the southern Italian coast has risen to 62, Italian authorities said on Monday, as they laid their bodies out in white bags (pictured)
The wooden vessel smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart before dawn on Sunday off the Italian coast. Dozens of people are still missing in the rough waters. Pictured: Rescue workers recover a body on a beach in Italy on Sunday
Some have blamed the country’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgina Meloni (pictured) and her party’s hardline policy against migrant boats for the dozens of deaths, while she has pointed the finger at ‘inhumane’ human traffickers. Others have blamed the EU
Harrowing stories began to emerge on Monday from the survivors of the disaster.
‘The traffickers started to throw kids out; they grabbed them by the arm and threw them in the sea,’ one of the survivors told Italian newspaper La Stampa.
Fourteen children are believed to be among the dead, including twins, whose bodies were found in the water, and a baby, whose body was found washed up on the shore.
One victim, a 12-year-old Afghan boy, lost nine members of his family, including his parents, according to The Times. An Afghan man said his wife was still missing with their three children. ‘They were with me on the boat but I haven’t seen them since.’
At least 80 people were found alive, including some who reached the shore after the shipwreck just off Calabria’s coastline along the Ionian Sea, Italy’s Coast Guard said.
One of the agency’s motorboats rescued two men suffering from hypothermia.
Three suspected human traffickers were arrested and police were searching for a fourth, media reports said Monday.
Meloni, who leads Italy’s Brothers of Italy party which has neo-facist roots expressed ‘her deep sorrow for the many human lives torn away by human traffickers.’
‘It’s inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the ‘price’ of a ticket paid by them in the false prospect for a safe voyage,’ said Meloni, a far-right leader whose governing allies include the anti-migrant League party.
She vowed to crack down on departures arranged by human smugglers and to press fellow European Union leaders to help.
Opposition parties hit back, and pointed to Sunday’s tragedy as proof of the flaws in Italy’s tough-on-migration policy.
‘Condemning only the smugglers, as the center-right is doing now, is hypocrisy,’ said Laura Ferrara, a European Parliament lawmaker from the populist 5-Star Movement.
‘The truth is that the EU today doesn’t offer effective alternatives for those who are forced to abandon their country of origin,’ Ferrara said in a statement.
Elly Schlein, a US-Italian national and longtime left-wing political operative who worked on two presidential campaigns for former US President Barack Obama, became the first woman to head Italy’s opposition Democratic Party on Sunday.
She also hit out at Meloni, saying that the shipwreck deaths Sunday of dozens off southern Italy ‘weighs on the conscience of those who only weeks ago approved a decree whose only goal is to hinder rescues at sea.’
She was referencing a law passed by Italy’s parliament last week that requires rescue vessels to request access to a port and sail to it ‘without delay’ after a sea rescue.
Officials fear the death toll could top 100 since some survivors indicated the boat had as many as 200 passengers from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan when it set out from Turkey, United Nations refugee and migration agencies said.
Pictured: A view of part of the wreckage of a capsized boat that was washed ashore at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Monday, February 27. Rescue and recovery efforts are on-going
Pictured: An aerial view of the wrecked boat is seen in Cutro, southern Italy. At least 80 people were found alive, including some who reached the shore after the shipwreck just off Calabria’s coastline along the Ionian Sea, Italy’s Coast Guard said
While many were rescued, others were not so lucky, including twin children, whose bodies were found in the water, and a baby, whose body was found washed up on the shore. Pictured: A covered body is seen on the beach in the aftermath of a deadly migrant shipwreck, in Le Castella, Italy, February 27
The law complicates efforts by humanitarian boats to make multiple rescues in the central Mediterranean by assigning them ports of disembarkation along Italy’s northern coasts. That means the vessels need more time to return to the sea after bringing migrants aboard and taking them safely to shore.
Humanitarian organisations have lamented that the crackdown also includes an order to the charity boats not to remain at sea after the first rescue operation in hopes of performing other rescues, but to head immediately to their assigned port. Violators face stiff fines and confiscation of rescue vessels.
Filippo Ungaro, who works with Save the Children, said of the disaster to The Telegraph: ‘One again, the umpteenth time, we are mourning the unjust deaths of those searching for a better future, fleeing from war and poverty.’
Meanwhile, he said, ‘Politics, in Italy and Europe, thinks about how to resolve the matter with walls and restrictions for NGOs.’
Blocking the work of NGOs, Spanish migrant rescue charity Open Arms said, would ‘only have one effect: the death of vulnerable people.’
Last week, Italy’s interior minister Matteo Piantedosi, boasted about how agreements with Tunisia and Libya has ‘averted the arrival’ of more than 20,000 refugees.
However, in 2022, some 105,000 migrants arrived on Italian shores, some 38,000 more than in 2021, according to Interior Ministry figures.
According to UN figures, arrivals from the Turkish route accounted for 15 percent of the total number, with nearly half of those fleeing from Afghanistan.
Increased fines and operating costs have also meant there are fewer rescue ships working in Mediterranean. A quick rescue is now far less likely.
President of the Calabria region Roberto Occhiuto pointed his finger at the EU for failing to do more. ‘What has the EU done in these years?’ he asked. ‘Where is the Europe that should guarantee safety and legality?’
Italian President Sergio Mattarella called on the European Union to ‘finally concretely assume the responsibility of managing the migratory phenomenon to remove it from the traffickers of human beings.’
Italy has complained bitterly for years that fellow EU countries have balked at taking in some of the migrants, many of whom are aiming to find family or work in northern Europe.
A man prays next to tributes laid outside PalaMilone sports hall, where victims’ coffins are kept in the aftermath of a deadly migrant shipwreck, in Crotone, Italy, February 27
A man kneels for prayer at the site where the coffins of the recovered dead from a migrant ship are located that sank off the coast, in Crotone, Italy, February 27
The boat collided with the reefs in wind-whipped seas. Three big chunks of the vessel ended up on the beach near the town of Steccato di Cutro, where splintered pieces of bright blue wood littered the sand like matchsticks.
‘All of the survivors are adults,’ Red Cross volunteer Ignazio Mangione said. ‘Unfortunately, all the children are among the missing or were found dead on the beach.’
Rescuers said two men who survived were spotted trying to save children by holding them over their heads as waves buffeted them. But the children died, state TV said.
The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders said it was offering psychological assistance to survivors, who included a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan whose sister, 28, made it to the beach but then died.
The group said the teen ‘hasn’t found the courage to tell his parents.’
Another survivor was a 12-year-old boy from Afghanistan who lost his entire family, including four siblings.
Italian state TV quoted survivors as saying the boat set out five days ago from Turkey.
Standing next to the wreckage on the beach, a reporter for Italian RAI state TV noted a life preserver bearing the word ‘Smyrna,’ a Turkish port also known as Izmir.
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.
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.’
Pictured: A view of the wreckage of a capsized boat that was washed ashore at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Monday
Pictured: Personal belongings among the wreckage of a capsized boat washed ashore at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Monday
Pictured: Personal belongings among the wreckage of a capsized boat washed ashore at a beach near Cutro, southern Italy, Monday
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.
David Morabito, a rescue diver in Calabria, told Rai state broadcaster he had recovered the bodies of the 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.
Source: Read Full Article
