Nearly 60 Dead After Migrant Boat Sinks Near Italy

0:00

/0:00

1×

Facts

• After a wooden boat crowded with migrants ran aground on Sunday, rescuers have recovered nearly 60 bodies with dozens more missing. Death toll estimates are reaching 100 people, with some survivors indicating that there were as many as 200 passengers when it set out from Turkey.¹
• The boat, which had departed from Turkey several days earlier with refugees from Afghanistan, Iran, and several other countries, ran aground near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria.²
• According to the Italian coastguard, approximately 80 people survived the shipwreck. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi — who visited the scene — said as many as 30 people may still be missing.³
• According to the Interior Ministry, nearly 14K migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year — an increase from 5.2K over the same period last year.⁴
• Italy and Spain have often complained that they take in the largest number of those trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe. Italy's right-leaning government recently passed a controversial law restricting aid vessels from rescuing more than one boatload of migrants at a time.⁵
• Regional governor Roberto Occhiuto said, 'Calabria is in mourning after this terrible tragedy.' Italian President Sergio Mattarella urged the international community to commit to eradicating the causes of mass migration — including conflict, persecution, terrorism, and poverty.⁶

Sources: ¹NBC, ²Al Jazeera, ³BBC News, ⁴Uk.yahoo, ⁵Dw and ⁶France24.

Narratives

• Narrative A, as provided by Euractiv. While the EU has a moral obligation to help refugees, the block is facing an unprecedented migration crisis as a result of current policies and abuses of an overwhelmed system, leading to tragedies such as these. The bloc must work together to strengthen controls at external borders, with a focus on return procedures, reducing incentives for secondary movement, and promoting effective solidarity.
• Narrative B, as provided by Jacobin. The European Commission calls the loss of innocent migrant lives on the Mediterranean a tragedy. Yet, at the same time, EU member states have pledged substantial new funds for weapons, surveillance, and speeding up deportations, as well as calling for building walls and fences around the EU to keep refugees out. By closing land routes, the EU is forcing migrants to make extremely dangerous voyages across the Mediterranean.