Cutro Marks 2nd Anniversary of Deadly Migrant Shipwreck
Cutro: The Calabrian coastal town of Cutro on Wednesday marked the second anniversary of the February 26 shipwreck in which at least 94 refugees and migrants including 35 children and teens lost their lives. On the initiative of local online newspaper CrotoneNews, residents gathered on the beach to remember when a fishing boat thought to be carrying 180 people ran aground at 4:30 am two years ago and broke up in stormy seas a short distance from the shore after four days’ sailing from Turkey.
According to Ansa News Agency, Elly Schlein, the leader of the largest opposition member the Democratic Party (PD), attended the vigil, among with PD lawmakers Nicola Irto, Nico Stumpo and MEP Sandro Ruotolo, the vice president of the Italian Bishop Conference (CEI), Mons. Francesco Savino, bishop of Cassano allo Ionio, as well as the victims’ family members and survivors. “There is a political question that is still waiting for an answer for the victims of this case and for their families: why weren’t rescue services deployed?”, said Schlein. “It was fundamental to be here this year as well to commemorate the 94 victims beside their families and to ask, together with them, for truth and justice”, added the PD leader.
80 people survived the tragedy and several people could still be missing. Local prosecutors opened an investigation into the shipwreck amid claims the Italian authorities did not do enough to prevent it from happening. Last December, a court in the Calabrian city of Crotone sentenced three alleged migrant smugglers to terms of between 11 and 16 years in prison over their involvement in the shipwreck. The court sentenced Hasab Hussain, a 22-year-old Pakistani, to 16 years in prison, along with Sami Fuat, a 51-year-old Turkish citizen, while Khalid Arslan, 26, also from Pakistan, was given a jail term of 11 years on charges of aiding and abetting illegal immigration and, as a consequence, causing the passengers’ death.
In February, Gun Ufuk, a 29-year-old Turk who was one of the human traffickers on the Summer Love migrant boat that sank off Cutro was given a 20-year prison term by a Crotone judge. He was also sentenced to pay a fine of three million euros.