The Italian coastguards continued their research on Monday at sea and along the coast near Crotone in Calabria (South) the day after the sinking of a migrant boat in the Mediterranean, the toll of which continues to increase.
After the discovery of the bodies of new victims stranded on the coast, 62 dead are to be deplored, the coast guard told AFP on Monday, but this figure is expected to rise further. The previous count reported 59 dead.
NGOs have been caring for children who saw their loved ones drown when the overloaded boat, caught in a storm, broke on rocks at dawn on Sunday near the coast.
“A 12-year-old Afghan boy has lost his entire family, nine people in all: his four brothers and sisters, his parents and other close family members,” Sergio di Dato, head of the team of psychologists sent to the scene by the NGO Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) to help the survivors.
Italian police and AFP footage showed wooden debris scattered about 100 meters along the beach.
Firefighters from the nearby town of Cutro mobilized a speedboat on Monday to launch new searches, helped by helicopters flying over the area. According to local authorities, around 20 migrants are still missing.
In the village of Le Castella, where a 15th century fortress dominates the coast, an AFP journalist witnessed coastguard operations recovering the body of a woman, apparently in her twenties.
The Italian NGO Save the Children said on Twitter that it had taken care of survivors from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria, including a dozen minors who were traveling with their families. “There are a lot of missing minors,” she added.
“Criminal”
According to accounts by survivors reported by the NGO, “during the night, near the coast, they heard a loud crash and then all fell into the water”. “Some said they saw their loved ones fall into the water and disappear, or die.”
The boat left Izmir in Turkey last week and three people smugglers have already been arrested, while police are looking for a fourth suspect, according to Italian media.
The far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, ruled on Sunday “criminal to put a boat barely 20 meters into the sea with 200 people on board and a bad weather forecast”.
Italy, a country of first entry where hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived in recent years, criticizes its partners in the European Union for a lack of solidarity in the distribution of arrivals, even if a large number of them leave subsequently the peninsula for other countries.
“To prevent this tragedy from happening again”, France considered on Monday “necessary to strengthen increased cooperation with the third countries concerned and to develop a concerted European approach, both in terms of rescue at sea and the fight against trafficking networks.
“France is determined to continue with responsibility and solidarity the work undertaken with its European partners, in particular so that the Pact on migration and asylum can be concluded as quickly as possible”, added the spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. .
The most delicate part of this Pact, which must be concluded before the end of the term of office of the European Parliament in 2024, concerns a better sharing of responsibilities in the reception of asylum seekers between EU countries, an issue which has divided them since the refugee crisis in 2015-2016.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, nearly 14,000 migrants have landed in Italy since the start of the year, compared to around 5,200 during the same period last year and 4,200 in 2021.
NGOs recover at sea only a small percentage of shipwrecked migrants wishing to arrive in Europe, most being rescued by Coast Guard or Navy vessels. However, the Italian government accuses them of stimulating the arrival of migrants through their action and encouraging traffickers.