at least 28 migrants drowned after shipwreck off Calabria

At least 28 migrants died after their boat sank off Crotone, southern Italy, Italian firefighters said on Twitter (in Italian), Sunday, February 26. They added that they were able to rescue around 40 people. Several Italian media report a higher toll, and claim that the boat had 150 to 200 passengers on board. At this stage, the Italian Coast Guard has not confirmed this information.

This latest shipwreck comes days after the Italian parliament passed controversial new rules on rescuing migrants. This law obliges humanitarian ships to carry out only one rescue at a time, which NGOs say increases the risk of death in the Mediterranean.

This text was adopted on the initiative of the coalition government led by far-right leader Giorgia Meloni. The leader of the Fratelli d’Italia party was appointed prime minister in October, after notably promising to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Italy. According to the Interior Ministry, nearly 14,000 of them have arrived in the country since the start of the year, compared to around 5,200 during the same period in 2022.