Rescue operation involving a helicopter, police aircraft, the coast guard and border police, was underway as local fishermen also join the search for survivors
At least 43 migrants died when their overcrowded wooden boat smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart off southern Italy before dawn Sunday, the Italian coast guard said. Survivors reportedly indicated that dozens more could be missing.
Reporting from the village of Steccato di Cutro, state TV quoted survivors as saying the boat had set out five days earlier from Turkey with more than 200 passengers.Italy’s coast guard, which was coordinating the rescue, said about 120 migrants were believed to have been on board. “It’s inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women and children for the ‘price’ of a ticket paid by them in the false prospect for a safe voyage,” said Meloni, a far-right-wing leader whose governing allies includes the anti-migrant League party.
Another sea route employed by traffickers, considered among the deadliest for migration, crosses the central Mediterranean Sea from Libya’s coast, where migrants often endure brutal detention conditions for months, before they can board rubber dinghies or aging wooden fishing boats, toward Italian shores.
Humanitarian organizations have lamented that the crackdown also includes an order to the charity boats not to remain at sea after the first rescue operation in hopes of performing other rescues, but to head immediately to their assigned port of safety. Violators face stiff fines and confiscation of the rescue vessel.
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