Migrant Wooden Boat Sinks After Hitting Rocks in Italy: 59 People Killed Including 12 Children

Illustration of an immigrant transport ship. (Wikimedia Commons/Ggia)

JAKARTA - At least 59 people were killed, including 12 children, when a wooden sailboat carrying migrants to Europe crashed into rocks near Italy's southern coast early Sunday, authorities said.

The ship, sailing from Turkey, carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran and several other countries, sank in rough seas before dawn near Steccato di Cutro, a seaside resort on Calabria's east coast.

The incident has reignited debate over migration in Europe and Italy, where the right-wing government's recently elected tough new laws for migrant rescue charities have drawn criticism from the United Nations and others.

Manuela Curra, a provincial government official told Reuters about 81 people survived the boat crash. Twenty of them were hospitalized, including one in intensive care, February 27 was quoted as saying.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who traveled to the scene of the incident, said 20-30 people may still be missing amid reports from survivors that the boat was carrying between 150 and 200 migrants.

The ship sailed from the western Turkish port of Izmir about four days ago, then was sighted about 74 km (46 miles) off the coast of Italy late Saturday by a plane operated by the European Union border agency Frontex, Italian police said.

A patrol boat was sent to intercept it, but bad weather forced them back into port, police said, adding that authorities then deployed search units along the coastline.

A several-month-old baby was among those found washed up on the beach, the ANSA news agency said.

Emergency room doctor Laura De Paoli described finding another child who died, aged seven.

"When we got to the shipwreck we saw bodies floating everywhere and we rescued two men who were holding a child. Unfortunately, the little one was already dead," he told ANSA.

Voice breaking with emotion, Mayor Cutro Antonio Ceraso told news channel SkyTG24 he had seen "a spectacle you don't want to see in your life... life".

Wreckage from a wooden gulet, a Turkish sailing ship, littered the wide stretch of beach.

A survivor has been arrested on migrant trafficking charges, Guardia di Finanza customs police said.

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed deep sorrow over the deaths, and blamed human traffickers for profiting while offering migrants the "false prospect of safe passage".

"The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the unfolding of this tragedy, and will continue to do so, first calling for maximum cooperation from the countries of departure and origin," he said.

PM Meloni's government says migrant rescue charities encourage migrants to make the perilous sea journeys to Italy, and sometimes work in partnership with smugglers.

Humanitarian groups strongly reject both accusations.

"Stopping, blocking and obstructing the work of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will only have one effect: the death of vulnerable people left without assistance," Spanish migrant rescue agency Open Arms tweeted in reaction to Sunday's shipwreck.

A spokesman for the UN's International Organization for Migration (IOM), in a similar vein, appealed on Twitter to strengthen rescue operations in the Mediterranean.

Flavio Di Giacomo also called for opening "more regular channels of migration" to Europe, and action to address what he said were the multiple causes that pushed people to attempt sea crossings.

Italy is one of the main landing points for migrants trying to enter Europe by sea, with many wanting to travel to the wealthier northern European countries. But, for that they have to brave the most dangerous migration routes in the world.

The UN's Missing Migrants Project has recorded more than 20.000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean since 2014. More than 220 have died or gone missing this year, according to estimates.