Tragic shipwreck off Calabria.
A boat loaded with migrants trying to reach Italy broke in two, ending up against a rock due to the very rough sea: dozens of people died , the bodies were carried by the waves on the beach of Cutro, in the province of Crotone , in the «Steccato» area.
At least 59 victims (about twenty children: among them a few months old baby, a few years old twins, a 3 year old boy and another 7 year old) but the balance is provisional because many bodies are still in the sea . They said that there were 250 on the vessel. About eighty have survived so far: of these, 21 are taken to hospital and one of them is in serious condition.
The boat had departed from Turkey, carrying migrants from Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan .
On the spot police, carabinieri, 118 and Red Cross personnel.
" Deep sorrow for the many human lives cut short by human traffickers ", the comment of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni : "The action of those who today speculate on these dead are self-explanatory, after having exalted the illusion of an immigration without rules". The government, he adds, "is committed to preventing the departures and with them the unfolding of these tragedies , and will continue to do so, first of all by demanding maximum collaboration from the countries of departure and origin".
An "immense tragedy", as Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi defined it, which "grieves me deeply and first of all obliges us to condolence deeply for the lost human lives". Fundamental, he continues, "to continue with every possible initiative to stop departures".
«Already 40 dead have been recovered, including many children. I pray for each of them, for the missing, for the other surviving migrants", the thought of Pope Francis at the Angelus . "I thank all those who have brought help and those who are welcoming".
For SeaWatch , the German non-profit organization which operates in the central Mediterranean, it is «intolerable that the only access route to Europe is by sea. The absence of a European search and rescue mission is a crime that repeats itself every day.' «In the Mediterranean we continue to die incessantly in a desolating vacuum of rescue capacity – the words of Sergio Di Dato, project leader People on the Move, Doctors Without Borders -. A few tens of kilometers from the Italian coasts, when the goal was before their eyes, the future of dozens of people who were looking for a safer life in Europe drowned. It is humanly unacceptable and incomprehensible why we are always here to witness avoidable tragedies. It's a punch in the stomach, there are no other words. MSF has given the availability to the authorities to activate psychological first aid for the survivors".
(Unioneonline/D)
