March 12 () –
In the last few hours, the lifeless bodies of three more immigrants who have arrived on the beaches of Stacatto di Cutro have been located, bringing the death toll to 79 as a result of the shipwreck of a migrant boat on February 26.
The body of a man has been found on the beach of Steccato, where the shipwreck occurred just 100 meters from the coast, and the body of a child has appeared in Praialonga, also near the site of the tragedy. The body of a second minor has been sighted and recovered at sea, reports the newspaper ‘Repubblica’. All three have been transferred to Crotona.
The identification of the deceased becomes more and more difficult since the time they spend in the water causes a serious deterioration of the bodies.
Of the 79 dead, 33 were minors and 24 of them children between the ages of a few months and 12 years who had left Izmir, Turkey, hoping to cross the Ionian Sea. On Saturday thousands of people held a “procession” in memory of the deceased migrants.
As the days go by, some of the survivors have begun to tell what happened. They were traveling on a ship run by Turkish smugglers. They arrived on the coast of Italy on February 25, but shortly before arriving they turned off their engines without giving any reason.
Later the waves began to get worse, but the migrants could not warn because the smugglers had an inhibitor device that prevented them from using mobile phones. They, who were carrying satellite phones, at one point left using another boat and abandoned the migrants to their fate in the middle of the storm that ultimately caused the shipwreck.
