The catastrophe follows a transfer by far proper Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to limit teams that rescue migrants at sea.
Not less than 58 migrants died when their overcrowded wood boat smashed into rocky reefs and broke aside off southern Italy earlier than daybreak on Sunday, the Italian coast guard mentioned. Survivors reportedly indicated that dozens extra could possibly be lacking.
“The entire survivors are adults,″ AP quoted Pink Cross volunteer Ignazio Mangione. ”Sadly, all the youngsters are among the many lacking or have been discovered useless on the seashore.”
The Italian information company ANSA mentioned 20 minors are among the many useless, together with one new child.
Italian state TV quoted survivors as saying the boat had set out 5 days earlier from Turkey with greater than 200 passengers with folks from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan onboard.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing authorities — elected final 12 months on a pledge to cease migrants from coming to Italy — has vowed to cease migrants reaching Italy’s shores and in the previous couple of days pushed via a tricky new legislation tightening the principles on rescues.
The Guardian reported:
The prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s rightwing authorities, which got here to energy in October, imposed powerful measures towards sea rescue charities, together with fining them as much as €50,000 in the event that they flout a requirement to request a port and sail to it instantly after enterprise one rescue as an alternative of remaining at sea to rescue folks from different boats in issue.
Rescues in current months have resulted in ships being granted ports in central and northern Italy, forcing them to make longer journeys and subsequently lowering their time at sea saving lives. Charities had warned that the measure would result in hundreds of deaths.
