«The situation is simple in its dramatic nature: we have not received any emergency indications from Frontex» .
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said so on the shipwreck of migrants on the Calabrian coast : «The route is not covered by non-governmental organizations and therefore has nothing to do with government policies. Although we work to stop the illegal flows, we have continued to save all people. This is the history. I really don't think there are subjects on which to exaggerate so as to hit what one considers one's opponent».
Meanwhile the firefighters this morning found the body of a child who was part of the group of migrants . He was no more than three years old.
The body was found in the sea a few meters from the beach and not, as it emerged at first, on the shore .
In the following hours, the body of a 13-year-old boy was also found.
There are therefore 16 minors who are victims of the shipwreck, while the total number of dead rises to 70.
The Prosecutor of Crotone wonders if the Coast Guard and Guardia di Finanza have done everything possible. Why was a border police procedure activated and the search and rescue Sar event not called? And are any shortcomings criminally relevant?
«Coast Guard cowardly involved in a squalid political battle», thunders Matteo Salvini, on whose ministry the body depends. "Nobody touches the coast guard: the rules of engagement are determined by Europe and they are the same for all rescues", echoes the deputy minister of the same dicastery Edoardo Rixi.
In the crosshairs end up the "political filters placed before the rescue" which, explains Admiral Vittorio Alessandro, "have changed the system of rescues, attributing a more penetrating role to the Interior Ministry" . Transformations "definitely introduced with the Salvini decrees (during Count I, ed), but already at the time of Minister Minniti a front was opened on this new trend of things".
Chiara Cardoletti, UNHCR representative for Italy, underlines that the vehicle "crossed three countries before arriving in Italy, one must ask oneself why no one has intervened before".
All communications between the Gdf and the Coast Guard have ended up being examined by the judiciary. The prosecutor Giuseppe Capoccia will perhaps already on Monday, together with the prosecutor Pasquale Festa, sign the delegation to the carabinieri to acquire the papers and give substance to the second line of investigation. The one to clarify if there have been gaps in the relief efforts and if they are criminally relevant.
The other front of the investigation concerns the smugglers : the prosecutors have decided to hear the survivors to reconstruct the crash and the activities of the smugglers themselves. In the next few hours, the prosecutor Pasquale Festa, owner of the file, will make the request for an evidentiary hearing to the investigating judge of the Court of Crotone, Michele Ciociola. The objective of the Office led by the prosecutor Giuseppe Capoccia is to crystallize the evidence of the survivors' stories.
(Unioneonline/LD)