At least 58 migrants are now thought to have perished when their overcrowded wooden boat smashed into rocky reefs just off southern Italy at dawn Sunday, the Italian Coast Guard said.
“As of now, 80 persons were recovered alive — some of whom succeeded in reaching the shore after the shipwreck — and 43 bodies were found along the shore,” the Coast Guard statement said shortly before noon.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said that the migrants were crowded into a 20-meter -long boat in “adverse weather conditions.”
In a statement released by her office, she expressed “her deep sorrow for the many human lives torn away by human traffickers.”
The ship was carrying migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and other countries.
The acting president of the Italian Red Cross told Sky News that the drowning of a boat in southern Italy is a “real disaster”, and the migrants who survived the incident are in a “really, really, bad situation”.
