Premier Giorgia Meloni will meet the
relatives of the victims of the February 26 migrant shipwreck
disaster at Cutro in Calabria at the premier's office in Rome on
Thurday morning, sources said Tuesday.
Meloni was criticised for not meeting the relatives when the
government held a cabinet meeting in Cutro last Thursday,
criticism which sharpened when she took part in a karaoke
session for League leader and Transport Minister Matteo
Salvini's 50th birthday Friday night, signing a Fabrizio De
André classic about a Calabrian internal emigrant who died at a
northern Italian river.
The death toll from the shipwreck at Cutro near Crotone in
Calabria rose to 80 after the body of an adult male was found
Tuesday.
The body was found a few kilometres south of the site, at
Steccato di Cutro, where the boat carrying an estimated 180 or
so migrants from Turkey broke up in rough seas after smugglers
made an abrupt turn on a reef.
The 79th victim was found shortly before noon Sunday, another
child.
A few hours earlier, the lifeless bodies of an adult man and
another very young child had also been found.
This brought to 33 the number of minors who died in the
shipwreck and to 24 those in the 0-12 age group.
Some 80 people were rescued and around 25-30 are still missing
feared dead.
The centre-left opposition has called for Interior Minister
Matteo Piantedosi to quit after the Coast Guard failed to rescue
the migrants, and also for appearing to blame the victims for
recklessly endangering their children.
The government has said EU border agency Frontex did not flag
the ship and the migrant smugglers dodged controls.
Meloni's government passed an emergency decree cracking down on
traffickers and boosting legal channels for entry.
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