The Italian prosecutor's office investigates whether it took too long to go to the rescue of the 68 migrants drowned in Calabria
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A political storm has been unleashed in Italy after 68 immigrants drowned on the beaches of Steccato di Cutro, in Calabria, last Sunday February 26. The prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to clarify whether the different security forces –Coast Guard and Finance Guard – acted quickly upon learning that a boat with 180 people on board coming from Turkey was having difficulties. Many indications, that now it is on the way. valuing justice, they say no.
The prosecutor of Crotone, in the Calabria region, in the south of the country, has asked the Carabineros (militarized police) to recover the documents related to the activity of the Coast Guard and the Finance Guard after the European Agency for The Border and Coast Guard, Frontex , notify the Italian coast guard of the presence of the ship with problems on the night of Saturday, February 25. The investigation will deal with It was not possible to reconstruct the chain of messages that led to the for the emergency device to be activatedIt was only when the boat had already sunk just 100 meters from the coast.
The available data determine that Saturday, February 24, the night of the sea passed. There was an interval of six hours between the time Frontex sighted the the boat in which some 180 people were traveling and the start of the rescue operations of the overloaded boat , which sank during a storm after colliding with rocks. When they arrived at the point, the agents found dozens of dead men floating in the sea. 68 bodies were recovered, including Afghans, Iranians, Pakistanis and Syrians, and some 80 people managed to survive. The death toll could eventually exceed a hundred as there are many missing.
Petitions for resignation
The tragedyThis coincides with the beginning of the mandate of the Italian Prime Minister, the far-right Giorgia Meloni, who has taken a firm hand against migratory flows and the NGOs that are working to rescue them in The waters of the Mediterranean are placed under all kinds of bureaucratic obstacles to get them to abandon the activity.
The opposition has requested resignations. The Democratic Party (PD)The Italian government, the main opposition group to the right-wing government, has demanded the resignation of the Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi. “We await the outcome of the investigation but from the point of view of political responsibility, and his statements require his resignation and a deep reflection of (Prime Minister Giorgia) Meloni”, said the new leader of the progressive party, Elly Schlein.
Piantedosi, the right-hand man of far-right Vice President Matteo Salvini, has already raised eyebrows. He raised the controversy by assuring that “desperation can never justify travel conditions that endanger the lives of one's children”.
The requests for resignation< /strong> They also came from the centrist Azione party, from the Europeanist +Europa , Italian Left and the Radicals< /strong>, among others.
