A picket boat carrying 130 to 180 migrants broke aside in opposition to rocks close to a seaside city in southern Italy early on Sunday, drowning at the least 59 individuals, together with a new child and different youngsters, the authorities mentioned.

Eighty individuals survived the wreck, based on Italy’s Coast Guard, which mentioned helicopters, ships and jet skis had been nonetheless getting used to search for extra survivors in what remained “significantly hostile climate situations.” The loss of life toll was anticipated to rise.

The migrants had been primarily from Afghanistan, but in addition from Iran and Pakistan, and had been crossing from Turkey, the authorities mentioned.

The wreck drew expressions of grief and calls for for motion from leaders throughout the political spectrum in Italy, the place migration has lengthy been a central subject of debate. The far-right-led coalition authorities lately enacted extra restrictions on charities crewing migrant rescue vessels, although these organizations haven’t operated within the waters off Calabria, the area the place the newest tragedy occurred.

In video footage launched by the police, chunks of picket beams and boards might be seen mendacity subsequent to a construction resembling a ship’s keel on the seaside of Steccato di Cutro, a small seaside city on Calabria’s jap coast. Italian information shops confirmed survivors lined in thermal blankets sitting in a discipline close to the seaside, whereas a priest blessed the our bodies of their lifeless companions, hidden underneath white baggage close by.

Our bodies had been recovered at Steccato di Cutro, but in addition to the south, the authorities mentioned.

Calabria, which varieties the tip of Italy’s boot, is geographically the best vacation spot for migrant vessels touring from Turkey. It was the touchdown place of about 15 p.c of the 105,000 migrants who arrived in Italy final yr, based on the Worldwide Group for Migration.

Italy’s president, Sergio Mattarella, referred to as the shipwreck the “umpteenth tragedy within the Mediterranean that may’t depart anybody detached.”

He referred to as on the worldwide group to sort out the causes of migration, including in an unusually harsh assertion, “It’s equally indispensable that the European Union lastly takes on concrete duty” to regulate migration and take it out of the arms of human traffickers.

Throughout prayers on Sunday, Pope Francis talked about the shipwreck’s victims off Calabria, thanking all those that had participated in rescue operations and people who would supply shelter.

“I pray for them,” he mentioned, referring to the migrants on the Calabrian shores. “For many who are misplaced, and for individuals who have survived.”

His phrases had been echoed by Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, who expressed in a press release her “deep sorrow” however added that these lives had been “damaged by traffickers,” hinting at her authorities’s efforts to cease departures.

Italy’s inside minister, Matteo Piantedosi, mentioned, “It’s a large tragedy that reveals absolutely the have to act firmly in opposition to irregular migration channels.” It’s “important” to cease sea crossings which, providing migrants the “illusory mirage of a greater life” in Europe, enriched traffickers and “trigger tragedies like at this time’s,” he added.

The members of Italy’s coalition authorities have lengthy campaigned in opposition to immigration and have proposed anti-immigration insurance policies. Ms. Meloni, the chief of the far-right Brothers of Italy social gathering, had typically pushed for a “naval blockade” at sea to impede arrivals.

The measures she has introduced ahead in authorities thus far seem extra restricted in scope.

Arguing that the presence of charity boats within the central Mediterranean encourages migrants to make the crossing, Ms. Meloni’s cupboard lately handed a code of conduct for migrant help vessels that might restrict their time at sea.

Below the brand new legislation, ships have to hunt entry to a port and sail to it “immediately” after every rescue. The authorities have more and more assigned such vessels entry to ports in northern Italy, removed from the migration routes.

After a shipwreck off the Sicilian coast in 2013, the place 368 migrants died when their boat capsized, Europe launched a wide-ranging search-and-rescue operation that lasted for years.

As soon as funds ran out, nonetheless, that mission decreased its scope, and nations’ governments have been reluctant to tackle extra search-and-rescue duty, leaving a lot of the patrolling within the central Mediterranean to nongovernmental organizations.

Although solely a small fraction of migrants arriving in Italy achieve this in vessels operated by such organizations, they’ve change into a goal for successive Italian governments searching for to reveal motion in opposition to migration. The rescue organizations, in flip, have argued that limiting their operations solely will increase the risks going through migrants.

The central Mediterranean is traditionally one of many deadliest routes for migrants attempting to succeed in Europe. In 2022, 1,417 individuals died through the crossing, based on the Worldwide Group for Migration. Deaths had been significantly excessive this month, with 158 already recorded within the weeks earlier than Sunday’s wreck, in contrast with 132 in February final yr.

On Sunday, the Worldwide Group for Migration urged nations to bolster the system of search and rescue at sea, calling it “inadequate,” and to open common immigration channels.

“This isn’t an emergency in numbers,” the group wrote on Twitter. “It’s humanitarian.”