Coast guard search for 66 missing migrants, including 26 kids, continues for third day

  REGGIO CALABRIA -- Search operations for the 66 missing migrants lost 120 miles off the Calabrian coast in the worst shipwreck since the Cutro disaster were continuing for a third day Thursday, the Italian Coast Guard said. 

  The search is being carried out by the Nave Dattilo, an offshore patrol vessel, as well as the Coast Guard aircraft ATR-42 Manta, coordinated by the Secondary Centre of Maritime Rescue in Reggio Calabria. There have been 6 bodies found so far. 

  Among the 66 migrants on board, 26 were children. The boat left a Turkish port over a week ago, before the boat’s engine caught fire and overturned the hull near the Italian coast, in the largest migrant disaster since the Cutro Massacre. The passengers are believed to have come from Iran, Syria, and Iraq. 

  A passing french leisure boat sounded the mayday alarm, before merchant ships along with the Coast Guard, were able to rescue 12 of the migrants, transferring them to Roccella Ionica. The body of a woman was also found in the port of the city. The Coast Guard, Frontex, and EU border agency have begun the search for the more than 60 missing migrants.

  “I spoke with a young man who lost his girlfriend. The survivors said there were 66 missing, of which at least 26 were children, some only a few months old,” explained Shakilla Mohammadi, from Doctors without Borders. “Entire families from Afghanistan would be dead. They left Turkey eight days ago and three or four days ago they entered the water. They told us that they had travelled without life jackets and that some boats did not stop to help them.”

  The Governor of Calabria, Roberto Occhiuto, also commented on the disaster. “What we are experiencing are ours of distress for everyone in the region. Our seas should shine with life and hope, and not be periodically transformed into enormous cemeteries.”

  On the same stretch of coast between Calabria and Sicily, German charity ResQship intercepted a 6 metre wooden boat travelling from Libya to Lampedusa. The charity was able to rescue 51 people on board, having to cut some free with an axe. However, ten migrants died in the flooded lower deck of the wooden boat. Those on board had paid 3,500 dollars to sail from Zawia in Libya to Europe. 

  “Our thoughts are with their families. We are angry and sad. #FortressEurope kills,” the German NGO wrote on X. 

  Charities UNHCR, IOM, and UNICEF have also explained that, if the data is confirmed, “the number of deaths and missing people in the central Mediterranean will rise to another 800, an average of around 5 dead or missing each day from the start of the year.” 

  “From this sad moment, a new strength in our humanity is drawn out; from emotions, from pain and from the tear-filled eyes of those who made it, the volunteers at the Italian Red Cross, although shaken by what has happened, take the necessary incentives to feel closer to all of the people we welcome.” The President of the Italian Red Cross, Rosario Valastro added. 

  jp-lw

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