Rome (EFE) corpses and 81 people have been rescued.
The search operations are in charge of the Harbor Master’s Office and the Finance Guard and since the early hours of the morning divers and helicopters are also being used as many more victims are feared since the survivors explained that in the boat that left four days off the Turkish coast they were on board among 200 migrants from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria.
So far, 59 bodies have been recovered, of which 14 are minors, including several children and a newborn and 33 women, according to the Interior Ministry.
Of the survivors, 19 have had to be admitted to the hospital, while the rest have been transferred to the reception center in the nearby town of Isola di Capo Rizutto.
According to the first information, it seems that the boat broke in two, probably after hitting a rock due to the swell off the coast of Steccato di Cutro, a town in the province of Crotone.
For its part, Doctors Without Borders has been able to learn through the migrants to whom it provides psychological assistance, that the ship left Turkey 4 days ago with 177 people on board.
Controversy in Italy
While more missing persons are being sought, in Italy the political controversy has erupted again because at the time of the tragedy in the Central Mediterranean there were no NGO rescue boats due to the new rules imposed by the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni.
For example, Doctors Without Borders denounced that its ship, the Geo Barents, is blocked in the port of Ancona (center) for having violated the controversial decree on NGO ships introduced by the Government.
However, the response of the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, was that “in these weather conditions, migrants should not leave.”
For his part, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, has called for “a strong commitment from the international community to remove the root causes of migrant flows; wars, persecutions, terrorism, poverty, inhospitable territories due to climate change”.
It has also invited the European Union to provide greater assistance to Italy in managing migratory flows.
“It is equally essential that the European Union finally assume the specific responsibility of governing the migratory phenomenon in order to keep it away from traffickers in human beings, committing itself directly to migratory policies, in supporting cooperation for the development of the countries from which young people they are forced to leave due to a lack of prospects”, he said.
