Dozens of migrants are missing after the sailboat they were traveling on capsized about a hundred miles from the coast of Calabria. A merchant vessel came to the rescue of the vessel and subsequently transferred the 12 surviving migrants to a Coast Guard unit which then landed in Roccella Ionica. The body of a woman who died after falling into the sea also arrived in port. Searches have been launched for the missing people, but, at the moment, none have been recovered. The numbers are dramatic and according to some testimonies would refer to at least 64 missing
The migrants traveling on board the boat had left a port in Türkiye in recent days. Among the 12 people who arrived in Roccella Ionica there is also a pregnant woman. The Locri Public Prosecutor’s Office, which is coordinating the investigative activity, was informed of what happened.
The activity was started, explains the coast guard, following a may-day launched by a French pleasure craft, sailing approximately 120 miles from the Italian coast, on the edge of the SAR areas of competence of Greece and Italy which, after reporting the presence of the half-sunken boat, recovered 12 migrants on board, one of whom, a woman, later died. Among them Afghans, Iranians and Iraqi Kurds.
Having received the mayday, the Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (IMRCC) in Rome, explains the Coast Guard, immediately diverted to the site two merchant ships sailing nearby, an Atr42 aircraft of the Coast Guard and the CP305 and CP326 patrol boats stationed in Calabria .
Frontex assets also intervened on site. The 12 castaways, first transhipped by the French unit onto a merchant ship, were recovered aboard the CP305 which was heading towards the port of Roccella Jonica. Here the migrants were disembarked and entrusted to the care of the 118 health workers. One migrant died immediately after the disembarkation operations. Searches in the area are currently underway with Coast Guard and Frontex assets.
