Tragic shipwreck in Crotone: over 100 migrants are feared dead in Calabria, on the coast of “Steccato” by Cutro. There is still no reliable number of people who were on board the gulet which left Turkey 4 days ago. According to some survivors there would have been around 180. For others many more, at least 250. At the moment around 60 people have been recovered alive and 45 bodies have been found between the sea and the beach.
Among the victims there are also twins of a few years and a baby of a few months, less than a year old. The twins’ bodies were recovered from the sea, while the baby’s was found on the beach. According to some estimates, about twenty children of various ages would have died in the shipwreck.
THE POINT OF THE ANSA REPORTER
THE INVESTIGATIONS – An alleged smuggler, a Turkish citizen, was arrested. Among the wrecks was also found the document of another subject who has not been traced at the moment and who may have fled or be among the missing or victims.
THE RUNNING OF THE SURVIVORS – The approximately 60 surviving migrants brought to the reception center of Isola Capo Rizzuto cry without speaking, wrapped in terrible and silent pain. They have taken off their wet clothes and are wrapped up in blankets, reunited, staring into space, united by pain and desperation. A woman, who has a broken nose, cries out in despair the name of her son who she can’t find anymore than her.
Shipwreck of migrants in the Crotone area, searches continue
WHERE THE MIGRANTS CAME FROM – The migrants came from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria. It was one of the many journeys of hope that follows the Turkish route, the one most frequented by migrants from countries in the area. They were on a gulet that could not withstand the force of the sea, particularly rough, and split a few meters from the coast.
ANSA Agency
Rescuers were unable to reach him due to rough seas (ANSA)
Migrant shipwreck, the difficult rescue operations
“Deep sorrow for the many human lives cut short by human traffickers”. The Prime Minister says so Giorgia Meloni, emphasizing that “the action of those who today speculate on these dead are self-explanatory, after having exalted the illusion of unregulated immigration”. The government, he adds, “is committed to preventing the departures and with them the perpetration of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all by demanding maximum collaboration from the States of departure and origin”.
ANSA agency
Meloni: ‘Don’t speculate on the dead’. Salvini: ‘Block the smugglers’. Governor Occhiuto: ‘Where is Europe?’ (HANDLE)
“What has the European Union been doing all these years? Where is Europe that should guarantee security and legality? What happened to the operations of dialogue with the countries of origin of the migrants?”. These are the questions that the president of the Calabria Region asks, in a note, Roberto Occhiuto, in relation to the tragedy of the landing of migrants in Cutro. “All questions which, unfortunately – adds Occhiuto – to date have no answer. And those who stay in the territories, in close contact with everyday reality, are forced to manage emergencies and mourn the dead”.
ANSA agency
MSF: “Desolate lack of relief capacity”. Save the children: “Politics thinks of walls” (ANSA)
MATTARELLA’S APPEAL – The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella in expressing the “sorrow” for the shipwreck off the coast of Crotone, calls for “a strong commitment from the international community to remove the causes underlying the flows of migrants; wars, persecutions, terrorism, poverty, territories rendered inhospitable to climate change”. It is equally essential – he adds – that the EU finally takes on concrete responsibility for governing the migratory phenomenon in order to rescue it from human traffickers, directly engaging itself in migratory policies.
THE BRUSSELS ENGAGEMENT – “I am deeply saddened by the terrible shipwreck off the coast of Calabria. The resulting loss of life of innocent migrants is a tragedy. All together, we must redouble our efforts for the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Action Plan action on the central Mediterranean”. The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen writes it on Twitter.
THE POPE’S PRAYER – “I learned with pain of the shipwreck that took place on the Calabrian coast, near Crotone. 40 dead have already been recovered, including many children. I pray for each of them, for the missing, for the other surviving migrants”, Pope Francis told the ‘Angelus. “I thank all those who have brought help and those who are welcoming – added the Pontiff -. May Our Lady support these brothers and sisters of ours”.