Rescuers reveal harrowing scene of Italian beach littered with migrant shipwreck debris

Rescuers have revealed harrowing details of the scene of an Italian beach littered with the bodies of migrants and debris from a shipwreck that has killed at least 62 people.

The wooden gulet, a Turkish sailing boat, was carrying around 170 people when it smashed into rocky reefs and broke apart off the coast before dawn on Sunday.

The beach at Steccato di Cutro, on Calabria’s Ionian coast, was on Monday covered with the splintered remains of the 20m boat, as well as the belongings the migrants had brought with them, including a toddler’s tiny pink sneaker and a yellow plastic pencil case decorated with pandas.

So, far 62 bodies have been recovered and dozens of people are believed to still be missing.

Children, including a baby only a few months old, are among the dead.

Firefighter Inspector Giuseppe Larosa said what gutted the first rescue crews who arrived on the scene was how many children had drowned, and that the bodies of the dead had scratches all over them, as if they had tried to hang on to the boat to save themselves.

There were only a few life jackets scattered amid the debris.

“It was a spine-chilling scene,” said Mr Larosa on the beach on Monday morning. He said he had focused on the recovery efforts, but that the reaction of the survivors haunted him.

“Bodies disseminated all along the beach, many bodies disseminated on the beach. Among them many children.

“That thing that struck me the most was their silence. The terror in their eyes and the fact that they were mute. Silent,” he said.

The UN and Doctors Without Borders, which had crews on the scene, said many of the victims were Afghans, including members of large families, as well as Pakistanis and Iraqis.

On Monday, two coastguard vessels searched the seas north to south off Steccato di Cutro while a helicopter flew overhead and a four-wheel vehicle patrolled the beach.

A strong wind whipped the seas that still churned up splinters of the boat, gas tanks, food containers and shoes.

Firefighters confirmed three more bodies had been recovered in the morning, but held out little hope of finding survivors.

“I think no, because the sea conditions are too difficult,” said provincial fire commander Roberto Fasano. “But we can never abandon this hope.”

Italy’s Sky TG24 said at least three people had been detained on suspicion they helped to organise the trip from Izmir, Turkey.

Italy is a prime destination for migrant smugglers, especially for human traffickers launching boats from Libyan shores, but also from Turkey.

Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who has spearheaded Italy’s clampdown on migration, visited the scene Sunday and met local officials in Crotone.

At a news conference, he insisted the solution was to put an end to migrant crossings at their origin.

“I ask myself how it’s possible that these crossings are organised, pushing women and children to make the trips that end up tragically dangerous,” he said.

According to UN figures, arrivals from the Turkish route accounted for 15 per cent of the 105,000 migrants who arrived on Italian shores last year, with nearly half of those fleeing from Afghanistan.

Would-be refugees leaving Turkey have increasingly taken the more lengthy and dangerous Mediterranean journey to Italy to avoid Greece where authorities have been repeatedly accused of pushing back migrant boats to Turkey.

Overcrowded refugee camps in Greece and the increasing difficulty faced in joining family in western and northern Europe have also led more people to pay smugglers thousands of euros to cross straight to Italy instead.

On Monday, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said more than two dozen Pakistanis were believed to be among those who drowned.

“The reports of the drowning of over two dozen Pakistanis in a boat tragedy in Italy are deeply concerning and worrisome,” Mr Sharif said.

“I have directed the foreign office to ascertain facts as early as possible and take the nation into confidence.”

Pakistan Foreign Ministry representative Mumtaz Zahra said details had been requested from Italian authorities.

Afghans were the second top nationality to seek asylum in the EU last year, and have increasingly fled the spiralling security, humanitarian and economic troubles that followed the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

Italy has complained bitterly for years that fellow EU countries have baulked at taking in migrants, many of whom are aiming to find family or work in northern Europe.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called for a redoubling of efforts to deal with the problem.

“The resulting loss of life of innocent migrants is a tragedy,” she said in a tweet.

Italy’s government has concentrated on complicating efforts by humanitarian boats to make several rescues in the central Mediterranean by assigning them ports of disembarkation along the country’s northern coasts.

That means the vessels need more time to return to the sea after bringing migrants aboard and taking them safely to shore.

Humanitarian organisations have lamented that the clampdown also includes an order to the charity boats not to remain at sea after the first rescue operation in hopes of performing other rescues, but to head immediately to their assigned port.

Those found in breach face stiff fines and confiscation of rescue vessels.