The warning after the migrant accident in Calabria: "More will die"

The fact that more than three weeks have passed does not matter: bloated and disfigured human bodies continue to float ashore in Steccato di Cutro. So far, 88 people have been confirmed dead. At the same time, the migrant pressure on Italy is increasing from the increasingly authoritarian Tunisia. Francesca Travierso was one of the first journalists on the beach that Sunday morning in Steccato three weeks ago. She has been monitoring the “gli sbarchi” – the boats with migrants coming to Italy – since the nineties. Outside a sports hall where the bodies that are still being found are taken – local residents and relatives have made their own memorial grove. Francesca Travierso is afraid that this is not the last memorial grove to be erected. – It is clear that more will die. The more people who board such boats, the more people risk dying, she says. Francesca Travierso has seen most of it, she says. But what met her on the beach in Steccato di Cutro that February day is “the worst thing she’s ever experienced”. – The human bodies lay and bobbed out among the waves. The situation in Tunisia is worrying Although the migrant boat that sank off Steccato di Cutro came from Turkey, most boats that have arrived in Italy this year have departed from Tunisia. Experts point to two reasons for the increase: good weather and a growing economic and social crisis in Tunisia under increasingly authoritarian President Kais Saied. Particularly vulnerable in a Tunisia where lack of basic goods and record inflation are now commonplace are migrants from south of the Sahara who have come to the country to study or work. Kais Saied has in several outings singled out this group as guilty of the critical situation. Something that recently caused the EU Parliament to condemn the development in the country. Important issue on the EU agenda One of those who left Tunisia is asylum seeker Dmitri from Cameroon whom TV4 News meets in Crotone. “Life,” he says, “was just fine.” Then Saied took aim at the country’s black migrants. – I’d rather die at sea than return to Tunisia and live like a dog there, says Dmitri, who tells us that the boat he was traveling in had its engine stop and lay adrift on the open sea for a day before he – along with the more than 40 others on board – was rescued by the Italian Coast Guard. So far this year, over 20,000 migrants have come to Italy by water. That is more than three times as many as at the same time last year. At Italy’s request, the issue will be raised when EU leaders meet in Brussels tomorrow. If nothing happens, more will die – just like in Steccato di Cutro, says migration journalist Francesca Travierso. – It is not possible to prevent these people from going. But you have to find a way to manage the flows. In the clip above, migrants Dmitri and Sarah talk about their horrible boat journey

t4-general