The Italian coast guard has retrieved 14 additional bodies from the tragic shipwreck that occurred last week in the Ionian Sea off the southern Italian coastline. This brings the total number of confirmed victims to 34, with many more individuals still unaccounted for and presumed deceased.
The bodies were recovered on Friday and were transported to a port in Calabria for further processing. The search and recovery efforts involved three coast guard ships operating in the area, approximately 190 kilometers (120 miles) from the shore.
Survivors of the incident recounted that the motorboat had caught fire, leading to its capsizing off the Italian coast during the night last Sunday. The vessel had departed from Turkey eight days prior, carrying around 75 individuals from Iran, Syria, and Iraq. According to reports from the U.N. refugee agency and other U.N. organizations, eleven survivors are currently receiving medical treatment on land.
Tragically, the latest fatalities add to the grim toll of over 800 people who have lost their lives or gone missing and are presumed dead while attempting to cross the central Mediterranean this year. This staggering figure averages to approximately five deaths per day, as highlighted by U.N. agencies monitoring the situation.
Various humanitarian groups have condemned these deaths as stark evidence of the shortcomings in European migration policy, calling for urgent action to prevent further loss of life in perilous sea crossings.
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