Less than two weeks after at least 73 people perished in a shipwreck, the Italian coastguard has begun repeated rescue operations to save hundreds of migrants jammed onto boats off the Calabria area. “The rescue operations… are extremely complicated given to the high number of individuals on board the vessels adrift,” the coastguard said in a statement on Friday. Over 1,300 individuals were thought to be in immediate risk. Almost 500 people were rescued from a boat roughly 1,125 kilometers (700 miles) from the area that forms the toe of the boot-shaped Italian Peninsula.
Around 160 kilometers (100 miles) off the coast of Calabria, other ships were dispatched to save the 800 passengers aboard two other boats that had gotten into trouble. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the coast guard has requested assistance from a naval patrol boat. “The military ship is heading at full speed to give the requested assistance,” the Ministry of the Interior stated in a statement that was picked up by ANSA. In the heels of another disaster on the same stretch of coast on February 26, Italy’s ability to rescue refugees in need at sea has been called into question. On Friday, authorities found the body of a little kid, raising the death toll to 73. Several others are still missing. Last week, police boats tried to approach their wooden boat, but poor weather forced them to turn back. When the waves started to get rough, nobody thought to call the coast guard. The European border agency Frontex alerted Italian authorities that the boat was likely carrying a significant number of migrants, and now prosecutors are looking into whether or not the Italian government responded appropriately. The right-wing Italian government has categorically denied responsibility for the disaster. On Thursday, the government responded to the event by proposing harsher punishments for people smugglers and easing restrictions on lawful migration.
Since Wednesday, about 3,000 refugees have arrived in Italy via boat, compared to roughly 1,300 in all of March of last year. On Friday morning, the coast guard rescued around 500 refugees near the southern Italian island of Lampedusa, according to local media. On Thursday, ANSA reported that 1,869 refugees landed in Lampedusa through 41 boats, the largest daily arrivals total in the island’s history. The agency said that 3,000 individuals had been housed at the Contrada Imbriacola reception center.
