bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Reuters

An accident involving an overloaded migrant boat that sank near the southern Italian city of Crotone on Sunday morning has killed 59 people, the mayor said.
“As of a few minutes ago, the number of confirmed victims was 59,” Vincenzo Voce told television channel SkyTG24.
Earlier, the coastguard and police said 43 people had died and 80 had survived after the boat crashed against rocks.
The shipwreck took place near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on the eastern coast of Calabria, the region that forms the tip of Italy’s boot.
The boat was carrying about 120 people and hit rocks “a few metres from the shore”, the coastguard said, saying the search for other possible survivors was still on.
The Mayor of Cutro, Antonio Ceraso, told SkyTG24 that women and children were among the dead.
He said the migrants’ wooden boat had “disintegrated” amid stormy sea conditions, with parts of the wreckage strewn across some 300 metres of the coast.
His voice cracking up, Ceraso said he witnessed “a spectacle that you would never want to see in your life … a gruesome sight … that stays with you for all your life”.

Italian news agency AGI said that among the bodies was that of a baby a few months old.
Firefighters were searching the sea on jet skis, but conditions were harsh making the operation difficult, said Calabria firefighters’ spokesman Danilo Maida.
Quoting unidentified port authorities in Calabria, RAI state radio said the boat ran into trouble at dawn in the Ionian Sea.
Vessels from the coastguard, border police and firefighters were involved in rescue efforts. Wooden pieces of wreckage littered the beach at Steccato di Cutro.
The latest such tragedy comes just days after the hard-right government pushed through parliament a controversial new law on rescuing migrants.

Far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the leader of the post-Fascist Brothers of Italy party, won power in October, partly on a promise to stem the flow of migrants reaching Italian shores.
The new law forces migrant aid vessels to make just one rescue attempt at a time, which critics say risks increasing the number of drownings in the central Mediterranean.
Meloni expressed her “deep sorrow” on Sunday “for the many human lives cut short by human traffickers”, a statement from her office said. “The government is committed to preventing (migrant) departures, and with them the unfolding of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all by demanding maximum collaboration from (migrants’) countries of departure and of origin.”
The route to Italy is considered the most dangerous crossing in the world for people seeking asylum in Europe.

The stricken boat in Sunday’s tragedy left from Izmir in eastern Turkey three or four days ago, an Italian official said, adding that it had been carrying people from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia.
“According to survivors, 140 to 150 people had been aboard,” Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, told Reuters.
Migrant vessels arriving in Calabria usually depart from Turkish or Egyptian shores. Many of these boats reach remote stretches of Italy’s long southern coastline unaided by the coastguard or humanitarian rescue vessels.
Pope Francis said he was praying for everyone caught up in the shipwreck.
“Already 40 dead have been recovered, many of them children. I pray for every one of them, for the missing and for the other surviving migrants,” the Pope said in his weekly address to crowds in St. Peter’s Square.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse and Associated Press


Style Edit: Bulgari’s festive offerings, from Divas’ Dream to Serpenti Viper jewellery

Who was at the Brunello Cucinelli film premiere, from Jonathan Bailey to Italian PM Giorgia Meloni

Gucci, Prada, Versace face Italy probe over alleged Chinese labour exploitation

Prada has bought Versace for $1.4 billion. Can it make its Milan rival ‘interesting again’?

Italy

Italy shipwreck leaves 59 migrants dead after boat hits rocks, baby and children among victims

Rescuers recover a body on a beach in southern Italy on Sunday after a migrant boat broke apart in rough seas, killing dozens. Photo: AP

Rescued migrants sit on a beach in southern Italy on Sunday. Dozens of others died after their boat disintegrated. Photo: AP

The wreckage from a capsized boat on a beach in southern Italy on Sunday. Photo: AP

Angelo Raffaele Panzetta (C-L), Archbishop of Crotone, blesses the bodies of migrants after they washed ashore following a shipwreck off southern Italy. Photo: EPA-EFE

Turn to fellow migrants for emotional support, psychologists urge Hongkongers overseas after recent arrival commits suicide in UK

Passengers at the departure hall of Hong Kong International Airport. Psychologists say migrants often face challenges in finding housing and employment overseas. Photo: Yik Yeung-man

A spokeswoman for the London NGO where Fion Ho worked said she was “extremely well-liked, respected and well-supported by her colleagues”. Photo: Handout

Tori and Lokita movie review: Dardenne brothers return to form with punchy drama about migrant workers and their exploitation

Pablo Schils (front) and Joely Mbundu in a still from Tori and Lokita.

Joely Mbundu (right) in a still from Tori and Lokita (category IIA, French), directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne.

Pablo Schils in a still from Tori and Lokita.

Pablo Schils (left) and Joely Mbundu in a still from Tori and Lokita.

Chinese migrant workers stranded in Guangzhou’s Covid-19 homeless crisis

Residents in blue PPE prepare to be transferred from an urban village in Guangzhou, in southern China’s Guangdong province, to a Covid-19 quarantine centre. Photo: AP

As Guangzhou battles its most severe outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the city’s migrant workers are struggling to find supplies or even somewhere to stay. Photo: Weibo

Hundreds protest outside UK migrant centre as government pledges to speed up asylum process

Demonstrators outside the Manston immigration short-term holding facility near Kent, England, protest about overcrowding and inhumane conditions. Photo: AP

The containment area inside the Manston migrant processing centre during the visit of British Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Photo: Reuters

Qatar rejects compensation fund for World Cup migrant workers as ‘publicity stunt’

A worker carries a bucket of building materials past the World Cup stadium in Doha. Photo: AFP

T-shirts at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, organised by Amnesty International to protest against migrant worker exploitation at Doha’s World Cup stadium. Photo: AFP

News

World

Europe

Boat was carrying over 120 people when it ran into trouble; ‘a spectacle you’d never want to see … a gruesome sight … that stays with you all your life’
Tragedy comes just days after a controversial new rescue law was pushed through parliament by Italy’s far-right government


Overloaded boat was carrying more than 120 people; tragedy comes days after far-right government pushed through controversial new law on rescues.


Europe’s refugee crisis

Human rights

Giorgia Meloni