On Sunday morning, the Italian seaside resort of Steccato di Cutro was left with nothing but debris after a wooden sailing boat carrying up to 200 people crashed against rocks in the early hours. At least 62 people drowned in the shipwreck, including 12 children, including a months-old baby and twin toddlers. Witnesses described a tragic scene with bodies strewn across the beach.
Survivors were found in damp clothes, some barely clothed, their clothes torn by the force of the waves. A 16-year-old from Afghanistan, who fled with his sister after the Taliban cracked down on women’s rights, swam ashore carrying his sibling only to realise she was dead. A 40-year-old man whose life was under threat in Afghanistan survived with his 14-year-old son, but lost three children and his wife.
The boat had left the western Turkish port of Izmir four days earlier and was spotted by a plane operated by European Union border agency Frontex about 74km (46 miles) off the Italian coast late on Saturday. Survivors spoke of a blast before the shipwreck, but Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) said the boat likely hit a rock as no burns were reported among the injured.
Patrol boats and search units were sent out when the boat was spotted, but severe weather forced them to return to port. Sixty survivors were brought to the hosting centre of Isola di Capo Rizzuto, while 22 people remain in hospital, including a teenage boy who was put in intensive care. The boy is now receiving psychological support.
The disaster has renewed a debate on how to curb migration flows to Italy and Europe and avoid similar tragedies. Italy’s hard-right government has blamed traffickers who profit while offering refugees “the false prospect of a safe journey”. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the bloc needs common rules to face the challenges associated with migration.
Civil society organisations have denounced official responses as hypocritical. MSF’s rescue vessel, the Geo Barents, has been detained and fined for allegedly failing to share required information with Italian authorities. The NGO says the contested data is only released in case of an accident and is not required under normal circumstances.
MSF’s programmes director Marco Bertotto said that it is impossible to avoid more tragedies without reinstating a [government] rescue operation and that this incident is yet another collateral damage of Europe’s policies. Italy launched a naval and air operation dubbed Mare Nostrum in 2013 that was terminated a year later with no replacement except those put forward by charities, which bring to safety only a fraction of refugees. The European Union border agency Frontex has no mandate to search for or rescue refugees at sea.
Sunday’s shipwreck in Steccato di Cutro has reminded the world of the worst horrors of Europe’s refugee crisis. The tragedy has sparked a debate on how to curb migration flows to Italy and Europe and avoid similar disasters in the future. Italy’s hard-right government has blamed traffickers who profit while offering refugees “the false prospect of a safe journey”. Civil society organisations have denounced official responses as hypocritical.
MSF’s programmes director Marco Bertotto said that it is impossible to avoid more tragedies without reinstating a [government] rescue operation and that this incident is yet another collateral damage of Europe’s policies. Italy launched a naval and air operation dubbed Mare Nostrum in 2013 that was terminated a year later with no replacement except those put forward by charities, which bring to safety only a fraction of refugees. The European Union border agency Frontex has no mandate to search for or rescue refugees at sea.
The tragedy has highlighted the need for common rules to face the challenges associated with migration and for a government rescue operation to be reinstated in order to save lives. Charities do not operate rescue vessels in the Ionian route, an arm of the Mediterranean Sea connecting Italy to Greece and Turkey to the east, but instead concentrate operations in the Central Mediterranean route between Italy and North Africa, which is considered the deadliest.
The survivors of Sunday’s shipwreck are deeply traumatised by their experience and are now receiving psychological support. The incident has highlighted the need for urgent action to prevent further tragedies and ensure that refugees can find safe passage to Europe without risking their lives at sea.