By Paolo Santalucia and Luigi Navarra | Associated Press
STECCATO DI CUTRO — The death toll rose to at least 64 in the migrant tragedy off Italy’s southern coast after rescue crews recovered several more bodies Monday, driving home once again the desperate and dangerous boat crossings of people seeking to reach Europe. Dozens more were believed to be missing.
At least eight of the dead were children who perished after a wooden boat broke up in stormy seas on the shoals off the Calabrian coast Sunday. Eighty people survived.
“Many of them didn’t know how to swim and they saw people disappear in the waves; they saw them die,” said Giovanna Di Benedetto of Doctors Without Borders, which sent psychologists to help survivors.
More were feared dead given survivor accounts that the boat, which set off from Turkey last week, was carrying about 170 people. State TV quoted Carabinieri paramilitary police as saying Monday night that the death toll had risen to 64 after two more bodies were recovered, including that of a 14-year-old boy.
Authorities in the southern city of Crotone asked relatives to provide descriptions and photos of loved ones to help identify the dead in a makeshift morgue at a sports arena.
Fazal Amin, himself a migrant from Pakistan, waited outside the stadium in Crotone for information about a friend’s brother in Turkey whose phone stopped working.
“He just wants to know if he is dead or alive,” Amin said.
Italian authorities rejected criticism of a delayed rescue, noting they had dispatched two rescue boats shortly after the European Union’s border agency spotted the 20-foot (6-meter) boat Saturday night as it headed toward shore. The rescuers had to turn back because of the rough seas, the authorities said.
The beach at Steccato di Cutro, on Calabria’s Ionian coast, was littered Monday with the splintered remains of the migrant vessel as well as with passengers’ belongs: a toddler’s tiny pink sneaker, Mickey Mouse pajama…
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