Antonino Galofaro, with AFP
modified to
6:14 p.m., February 26, 2023
At least sixty migrants died on Sunday after the sinking of their boat, not far from the Italian city of Crotone, in Calabria (South), the President of the European Commission calling for “redouble efforts” to reform the right to ‘asylum. “Until a few minutes ago, the number of confirmed victims was 59,” Vincenzo Voce told the Sky TG-24 streaming news channel at 4:00 p.m. (3:00 p.m. GMT). According to the coast guard, the boat was carrying around 120 people and broke on the rocks a few meters from the coast, the firefighters referring to them as “more than 200 people”.
About 120 people in the boat
Italian police footage shows wood debris scattered over a hundred meters of the beach, where many rescuers and survivors were waiting to be transferred to a reception center. Expressing her “deep pain”, the head of government Giorgia Meloni judged in a press release “criminal to put at sea a boat of barely 20 meters with 200 people on board and a bad weather forecast”. “The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them this kind of tragedy, and will continue to do so, demanding above all the greatest collaboration of the States of departure and origin”, assured Giorgia Meloni.
The head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen called on Sunday to move forward on the reform of the right of asylum in the European Union, after this “tragedy”. She affirmed that it was necessary “to redouble efforts concerning the Pact on the migrations and the right of asylum, and on the Action plan for the central Mediterranean”. The most delicate part of this pact, which must be concluded before the end of the mandate of the European Parliament in 2024, concerns the best 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.
The President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella lamented the sinking in which “dozens of people, including children, lost their lives”. “A large number of these migrants came from Afghanistan and Iran, fleeing very difficult conditions,” added the Head of State, expressing the wish for “a strong commitment from the international community to eliminate the causes of the migrations: wars, persecutions, terrorism, poverty…”. Italy, a country of first entry which has received hundreds of thousands of migrants over the past years, criticizes its EU partners for a lack of solidarity in the distribution of the latter, even if a large number of -they then left the peninsula to go to other countries.
The new shipwreck comes just days after parliament passed controversial new rules by the far-right-dominated government on rescuing migrants. Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Fratelli d’Italia party (FDI), took over as head of a coalition executive in October after promising to reduce the number of migrants arriving in Italy.
“Illegal immigration”
The new law requires humanitarian ships to carry out only one rescue at a time, which critics say increases the risk of death in the central Mediterranean whose crossing is considered the most perilous in the world for migrants. For Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, this “tragedy (…) demonstrates how it is absolutely necessary to fight firmly against the networks of illegal immigration”. Italy’s location makes it a top destination for asylum seekers crossing from North Africa to Europe and Rome has long complained about the number of arrivals to its territory.
According to the 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. However, NGOs only transport a small percentage migrants wishing to arrive in Europe, most being rescued by coast guard or navy vessels. However, the government accuses the NGOs of stimulating the arrival of migrants through their action and encouraging traffickers. Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), deplored “a new terrible shipwreck”, saying that “the time has come for states to stop debating and agree on fair, effective and shared measures to avoid further tragedies”.