Fifty-eight people, including a newborn baby and other children, have died after a wooden sailing boat believed to be carrying refugees crashed against rocks off the coast of Italy\u2019s Calabria region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many of the bodies were reported to have washed up on a tourist beach near Steccato di Cutro, while others were found at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to survivors, there were about 140 to 150 people onboard the boat before it crashed into the rocks. Eighty-one people survived, with 20 of them taken to hospital, Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, told Reuters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A Turkish national has been detained on suspicion of human trafficking, according to the Ansa news agency. The vessel is believed to have left Turkey four days ago with people from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan onboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bodies of the victims were being transported to a sports hall in nearby Crotone on Sunday afternoon. Ansa reported that 20 children, including twins and a newborn, were among those who died.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antonio Ceraso, the mayor of Cutro, told reporters: \u201cIt is something one would never want to see. The sea continues to return bodies. Among the victims are women and children.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The wreck of the boat was reportedly seen by fishers early on Sunday. \u201cYou can see the remains of the boat along 200-300 metres of coast,\u201d Ceraso added. \u201cIn the past there have been landings but never such a tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rai News reported that the boat \u201csnapped in two\u201d, citing sources as saying that those onboard \u201cdidn\u2019t have time to ask for help\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Italian coastguard, firefighters, police and Red Cross rescue workers attended the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As rescuers continued their search, Filippo Grandi, the UN high commissioner for refugees, called for European governments to \u201cstop arguing\u201d and \u201cagree on just, effective, shared measures to avoid more tragedies\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnother terrible shipwreck in the Mediterranean off the Italian coast,\u201d he wrote on Twitter. \u201cDozens of people have died, many children. \u201cWe mourn them and stand in solidarity with the survivors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, said the \u201cumpteenth tragedy in the Mediterranean shouldn\u2019t leave anyone indifferent\u201d, while urging the European Union to \u201cfinally take concrete responsibility for governing the phenomenon of migration in order to rescue it from human traffickers\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Italy is one of the main landing points for people trying to enter Europe by sea. The so-called central Mediterranean route is known as one of the world\u2019s most dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More than 100,000 refugees arrived in Italy by boat in 2022. The rightwing government of the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, which came to power in October, imposed tough measures against sea rescue charities, including fining them up to \u20ac50,000 if they flout a requirement to request a port and sail to it immediately after undertaking one rescue instead of remaining at sea to rescue people from other boats in difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rescues in recent months have resulted in ships being granted ports in central and northern\u00a0Italy, forcing them to make longer journeys and therefore reducing their time at sea saving lives. Charities had warned that the measure would lead to thousands of deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement, Meloni expressed her \u201cdeep sorrow\u201d for the lives cut short by \u201chuman traffickers\u201d while repeating her government\u2019s commitment to \u201cpreventing departures and along with them the tragedies that unfold\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is criminal to launch a boat of just 20-metres long with as many as 200 people onboard in adverse weather forecasts,\u201d she added. \u201cIt is inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the price of a \u2018ticket\u2019 paid by them on the false perspective of a safe journey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meloni said her government would demand \u201cmaximum collaboration\u201d with the countries of departure and origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matteo Piantedosi, Italy\u2019s interior minister, said the shipwreck in Calabria was a \u201chuge tragedy\u201d that \u201cgrieves me deeply\u201d, while adding that it was \u201cessential to continue with every possible initiative to prevent departures [of migrants]\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Piantedosi told Il Giornale on Thursday that the government measures, including agreements with Libya and Tunisia, had \u201caverted the arrival\u201d of almost 21,000 people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the International Organization for Migration\u2019s Missing Migrants project, 20,333 people have died or gone missing in the central Mediterranean since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fifty-eight people, including a newborn baby and other children, have died after a wooden sailing boat believed to be carrying refugees crashed against rocks off the coast of Italy\u2019s Calabria region. Many of the bodies were reported to have washed up on a tourist beach near Steccato di Cutro, while others were found at sea. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[4342,287,8193,9109,5262,11337,9387,5241,8660,6621,9505,1195,8016,2264,6825,10234,5910,10954,9259,1392,9515,3874,5050,5331,5973,8007,12309,7343,65,6831,6737,11973,3042,421,11082,3805,12103,3174,5656,5524,6264,12524,10740,9313,6262,9616,12852,6433,2570,73,5350,5465,7231,10786,9539,9085,5320,36,594],"class_list":["post-29835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-afghanistan","tag-children","tag-crash","tag-crashed","tag-cut","tag-demand","tag-detained","tag-died","tag-essential","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-government","tag-hospital","tag-human-trafficking","tag-initiative","tag-international","tag-italian","tag-italy","tag-killed","tag-lead","tag-libya","tag-mayor","tag-mediterranean","tag-meloni","tag-men","tag-migrants","tag-migration","tag-missing","tag-mourn","tag-one","tag-pakistan","tag-police","tag-port","tag-president","tag-price","tag-prime-minister","tag-red-cross","tag-refugees","tag-survivors","tag-ticket","tag-tourist","tag-trafficking","tag-tragedy","tag-train","tag-train-crash","tag-tunisia","tag-turkey","tag-twins","tag-twitter","tag-un","tag-union","tag-vessel","tag-victims","tag-weather","tag-women","tag-world","tag-who"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}