The Italian Coast Guard has raised the death toll from the Calabria shipwreck to 86 after finding five more bodies off the coast of the southern Italian town of Crotone.
The bodies of two men, a woman, a boy and a three-year-old girl were recovered on Wednesday, according to the Italian news agency Adnkronos.
About 200 migrants were on board at the time of the shipwreck on February 25, which is considered the deadliest so far this year in the central Mediterranean, a particularly busy route for migrants and refugees who want to reach from North Africa to southern Europe. The Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the case, which has reignited the immigration debate in Italy.
More than 330 people, 17 of whom were children, have lost their lives so far this year on the central Mediterranean route, according to data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which has recorded more than 20,500 deaths in this area since 2014.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
