So far, 70 bodies have been recovered from the Feb. 26 shipwreck near the small Italian beach town of Steccato di Cutro, but only 80 survivors have been found, indicating that the death toll was higher. On Sunday, firefighter divers spotted a further body in the Ionian Sea and were working to bring it ashore, state TV said.
"Italy here we come!" cheered the young men, in Urdu and Pashto, as they filmed themselves standing on a boat sailing in bright blue waters.
Based on court documents, testimony from survivors and relatives and statements by authorities, the AP has reconstructed what is known of the events that led to the shipwreck and the questions left unanswered.In the early hours of Wednesday, Feb. 22, the migrants -- including dozens of families with small children -- boarded a leisure boat on a beach near Izmir following a truck journey from Istanbul and a forest crossing by foot.
Frontex sent an email to Italian authorities at 11:03 p.m. reporting one person on the upper deck and possibly more people below, detected by thermal cameras. No lifejackets could be seen. The email also mentioned that a satellite phone call had been made from the boat to Turkey. At 3:48 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 26, the financial police vessels returned to base, without having reached the boat due to bad weather. The police contacted the coast guard to ask if they had any vessels out at sea "in case there was a critical situation" according to communication obtained by the Italian ANSA agency and confirmed by AP. The coast guard replied they did not. "OK, it was just to inform you," a police officer said before hanging up.
Among those who lived was a Syrian father and his eldest child, but his wife and three other children did not. The body of his youngest, age five, was still missing four days later. The baby-faced teenager had shared a video with his family during his sea voyage, with apparently good weather. In an interview with AP, retired coast guard admiral Vittorio Alessandro said the coast guard's boats are made to withstand rough seas and that they should have gone out. "If not to rescue, at least to check whether the boat needed any assistance."
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