Sunday’s shipwreck off Italy’s southern coast – which claimed the lives of at least 60 people including many children – has prompted calls for the EU to show responsibility and humanity in taking concrete measures to deal with migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
Rescue crews were on Monday continuing their search by sea and air for the dozens of people believed still missing from Sunday’s shipwreck off the Calabrian coast.
Sixty bodies have been recovered so far, including around 20 children.
At least 80 people survived the shipwreck, but dozens are feared dead given survivor reports that the ship, which set off from the Turkish port of Izmir last week, had 170 people on board.
Italian firefighters put the figure at closer to 200.
Most of the migrants were from Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who has spearheaded Italy‘s crackdown on migration, visited the scene on Sunday and met with local officials in Crotone.
At a news conference he insisted the solution was to put an end to migrant crossings at their origin.
“I ask myself how it’s possible that these crossings are organised, pushing women and children to make the trips that end up tragically dangerous,” he said.
Matteo Salvini's Lega Nord and PM Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party are insisting on the “need to block the departures of illegal migrants”.
But Simona Malpezzi, senator with the opposition Democratic Party, told RFI that “without a common European policy, it will not be possible to face the painful subject of immigration”.
Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella has asked the EU to “finally take responsibility for governing the migration phenomenon to take it out of the hands of human traffickers”.
Increasing risk of death
The shipwreck came shortly after Italy’s parliament adopted legislation limiting humanitarian action to one rescue operation in the central Mediterranean at a time.
Rescue boats are being assigned to ports of disembarkation along Italy's northern coasts, rather than exclusively in the south closer to rescue zones.
NGOs and centre left parties say the new measures, pushed by Italy’s right-wing coalition, are increasing the risk of deaths in the Mediterranean.
The rescue ship Geo Barents, operated by French NGO Doctors without borders (MSF), has been detained by Italian authorities for the last four days.
“What we see in Europe, whether at sea or at borders, is that we are building walls,” said MSF coordinator Caroline Willemen.
“We are always looking for other ways to make it more difficult for people to flee areas, but that is exactly what is leading to this kind of tragedy,” she told RFI.
Redoubling of efforts
On Sunday, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen called for a redoubling of efforts to deal with the problem.
“The resulting loss of life of innocent migrants is a tragedy,” she said.
She underlined the importance of the Pact on Migration and Asylum and the Action Plan on the Central Mediterranean.
The Pact was presented by von der Leyen’s Commission in September 2020 and is due to be implemented in the spring of 2024.
It would require asylum seekers to make their claims in the first EU country they enter with the aim of speeding up the process and sending back more quickly people whose claims have little chance of suceeding – notably those coming from countries the EU considers “safe”.
But the Pact is currently stalled, with so-called "frontline" countries such as Malta, Cyprus, Greece and Italy where the majority of migrants arrive viewing it as weighted against them.
To help relieve the pressure, the Pact includes a solidarity mechanism to spread out asylum requests across the bloc.
But eastern European countries such as Hungary and Poland refuse to be forced into taking quotas.
