The provisional death toll is 59, but it is expected to rise, Interior Minister Wanda Ferro told reporters.
Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, previously told Reuters that 81 people survived, with 20 hospitalized, including one person in intensive care.
As emergency services searched the sea and shoreline in stormy weather, Curra said survivors claimed there were between 140 and 150 people on board, suggesting some may be missing.
The ship, which was carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, sank in rough sea conditions near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the east coast of Calabria, the region that forms the toe of Italy’s boot.
It had set sail from Izmir, in western Turkey, about four days ago and was discovered about 74 kilometers from the coast on Saturday night by a plane operated by the European Union border agency Frontex, Italian police said.
Patrol boats were mobilized to intercept it, but bad weather forced them to return to port, police said, adding that authorities mobilized search units along the coast.
Among the first migrants found on the beach was a baby a few months old, according to the ANSA news agency.
“When we reached the point of the shipwreck we saw bodies floating everywhere and we rescued two men who were holding a child,” emergency doctor Laura De Paoli told ANSA, adding that the seven-year-old was dead.
With a broken voice, the mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso, told the news channel SkyTG24 that he had witnessed “a spectacle that you would not want to see in your life… a horrible sight… that will stay with you for the rest of your life “.
The remains of the wooden schooner, a Turkish sailing ship, were scattered over a large stretch of coastline.
One survivor was arrested on charges of migrant smuggling, Guardia di Finanza customs police said.
The word of the Italian Government
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “deep regret” over the deaths and blamed human traffickers who profit while offering immigrants “the false prospect of safe travel.”
“The Government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the development of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all, asking the countries of departure and origin for maximum collaboration,” he said.
Meloni’s administration has said migrant rescue charities are encouraging migrants to make the dangerous sea journey to Italy and sometimes working in partnership with smugglers.
“Blocking NGOs in the Mediterranean has only one effect: More deaths at sea”, tweeted the Spanish immigrant rescue charity Open Arms in reaction to the shipwreck on Sunday.
Italy is one of the main landing points for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many seeking to travel to wealthier northern European countries. But to do so, they must brave the world’s most dangerous migration route.
The United Nations Missing Migrants Project has recorded more than 17,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or disappeared this year, they estimated.
Source: Ambito
