Another arrest has been made in connection with a fatal shipwreck off the southern coast of Italy that killed at least 72 people last month. Meanwhile, there’s growing disagreement about where the remains of the victims should be buried.
According to an Italian official, a 27-year-old Turkish national has been arrested in Austria under suspicion of organizing the illegal sea crossing. He reportedly escaped the scene of the tragedy, which took place in the early hours of February 26.
A European arrest warrant had been issued against the suspect, who was taken into custody at an asylum shelter on Tuesday. A decision on the extradition of the man from Austria to Italy could be made within the next few days, the spokesman said.
Three alleged traffickers, one Turk and two Pakistanis, had already been detained in the aftermath of the shipwreck. Survivors identified them during police questioning.
The wooden boat took sail from Turkey on February 22, with an estimated 180 migrants crammed on board. Five days later it broke apart at sea after reportedly hitting a sandbank off Italy's Calabrian coast.
A total of 72 bodies have been recovered thus far, including 28 minors and 30 women. Around 30 people are still missing.
Read more: Piantedosi says smugglers caused deadly Cutro shipwreck
Investigations underway
Prosecutors meanwhile have launched two separate investigations into the disaster at sea — one examining the role of smugglers and their gangs, and another to assess whether Italian authorities could have helped avoid the tragedy.
The Italian government has staunchly denied allegations saying it deliberately delayed a rescue operation after receiving a report about the incident from a plane operated by the European Union's external border agency, Frontex.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said Frontex did not tell authorities the boat had any problem navigating after discovering it in rough seas. According to the prime minister, Italy's coastal services "operated in a correct fashion."
But opposition leaders have asked why a rescue operation was not launched once police boats that had been sent out to meet the migrant vessel were forced to turn back in increasingly choppy waters.
Read more: Italian sea rescue law puts more lives at risk, warns UN
Victim families outraged
Most of the victims of the tragedy came from Afghanistan, and a few from Pakistan. European relatives of the dead have gathered in the southern town of Crotone, where the bodies have been kept.
After local officials told the relatives that the coffins were going to be be sent to the northern city of Bologna for burial according to Islamic rites, family members staged a protest, calling for the bodies to be sent back home.
Italy's RAI News quoted an Afghan relative named Aladdin as saying he lost an aunt and three cousins. "We want to decide for ourselves where our deceased will be taken," he told the public broadcaster. An Afghan woman meanwhile was spotted by Italy's ANSA news agency holding up a sign accusing Rome of "playing with the dead."
The Italian government has said it would respect their wishes but stressed that it was difficult to organize a flight with the bodies to Afghanistan, as air traffic in and out of the country has come to a standstill since the Taliban takeover of power in August 2021.
The interior ministry said in a statement that conducting the planned burials in Bologna was only an interim solution: "We will follow the requests of each family ... If repatriation of the body is requested, the Italian State will bear all the costs."
In the meantime, ANSA ascertained that an agreement was reached whereby 24 of the bodies will be brought to Bologna with the consent of the families, while 17 others will remain in Crotone for the time being until bureaucratic hurdles to have them transferred to Afghanistan are overcome.
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Meloni visits Calabrian coast
Meloni meanwhile held a cabinet meeting in Cutro near the site of the deadly shipwreck. Her visit followed an appeal by the mayor of Crotone, Vincenzo Voce, who said the community was "struck by immense pain, has waited for a message from you, a call, a sign, which has not come."
While there, the cabinet signed off on a new bill establishing harder punishments for smugglers and traffickers. The prime minister's office also said that the bill would boost legal routes for foreign workers to come to the country.
Local associations and trade unions protested against the government's visit to the region, with organizers accusing the government of "faking grief" and "abandoning survivors and family members."
Read more: Shipwreck in Italy: 'The last tragedy of this kind dates back to 2013'
Europe's migration policies in disarray
Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party won elections last year on a promise to significantly curb sea arrivals; to this end, the ruling coalition has introduced a set of new rules, including clamping down on the activities of migrant rescue charities at sea.
However, critics say the government's new policy of treating the arrival of migrant boats as a law enforcement issue rather than a humanitarian crisis may have delayed the rescue last month, resulting in dozens of deaths, and could lead to future disasters.
Meloni has repeatedly demanded more help from the EU, stressing that Italy is disproportionately hit by migrant arrivals compared to much of the rest of Europe. Any attempts to redistribute migrants across the bloc in the past have resulted in little success.
As Meloni and her cabinet members descended on the Calabrian coast, EU interior ministers met in Brussels at the same time to discuss the bloc's ongoing approach to irregular immigration, with the role of Frontex in search and rescue missions at sea coming under increasing scrutiny.
with Reuters, dpa, AFP, KNA, Corriere della Sera, RAI