The search for the missing migrants after the shipwreck this Sunday off the coast of Crotone, in the Regio Calabria region (southern Italy), has continued all night while for the moment 59 bodies have been recovered and 81 people have been rescuedof which 20 have been hospitalized, including one person in intensive care.

While the disappeared are being searched for, the political controversy has erupted again after the tragedy because at that time in the Central Mediterranean there were no NGO rescue boats due to the new rules imposed by the far-right government of Giorgia Meloni.

For example, Doctors Without Borders has denounced that its ship, the Geo Barents, is blocked in the port of Ancona (center) for having violated the controversial decree on NGO boats introduced by the Government. However, the response of the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi, was that “in these weather conditions, migrants should not leave.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has expressed her deep regret over the deaths, blaming human traffickers who profit while offering migrants “the false perspective of a safe trip”. “The Government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the development of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all, asking for maximum cooperation from the countries of origin and origin,” he asserted.

The Meloni administration has gone so far as to claim that migrant rescue charities are encouraging migrants to make the perilous journey by sea to Italy and sometimes work in association with traffickers. Some statements that are strongly rejected by the NGOs.

For his part, the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, called for “a strong commitment from the international community to remove the underlying causes of migrant flows; wars, persecutions, terrorism, poverty, inhospitable territories due to climate change”. He also invited the European Union to provide greater assistance to Italy in managing migratory flows.

“It is equally fundamental that the European Union finally assumes the concrete responsibility of governing the migratory phenomenon to keep him away from human traffickerscommitting itself directly to migratory policies, in supporting cooperation for the development of countries from which young people are forced to leave due to a lack of prospects”, he stated.

“Stopping, blocking and hindering the work of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) will only have one effect: the death of vulnerable people left without helpSpanish migrant rescue organization Open Arms tweeted in reaction to Sunday’s shipwreck.

A spokesman for the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), along the same lines, appealed on Twitter to strengthen rescue operations in the Mediterranean. Flavio Di Giacomo also called for the opening of “more regular migration channels” to Europe and for action to address what he said are the multiple causes that drive people to attempt these sea crossings.

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Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who traveled to the scene, said 20 to 30 people may still be missing, amid reports from survivors that the boat was carrying 150 to 200 migrants.

The search operations are in charge of the Port Captaincy and the Finance Guard and from the early hours of the morning also divers and helicopters are being employedsince many more victims are feared since the survivors explained that in the boat that left four days ago from the Turkish coasts they were on board among 200 migrants from Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Syria.

So far 59 bodies have been recovered, of which 14 are minors, including several children and a newborn and 33 women, according to the Interior Ministry. Of the survivors, 19 have had to be admitted to the hospital, while the rest have been transferred to the reception center in the nearby town of Isola di Capo Rizutto.

From the first information it seems that the boat broke in twoprobably after hitting a rock due to storm surge off the coast of Steccato di Cutro, a town in the province of Crotone.

According to information obtained by Doctors Without Borders from migrants to whom he gives psychological assistancethe boat left Turkey 4 days ago with 177 people on board.