An Italian court has opened the trial of four police officers and two members of the Italian coastguard over their response to a 2023 shipwreck that killed at least 94 refugees and migrants.
The trial opened in the southern port city of Crotone on Friday, where the defendants face charges of involuntary manslaughter and “culpable shipwreck”.
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Rights activists assert that, as well as the individual officers, the right-wing Italian government’s immigration policies are also on trial.
Prosecutors accuse the police of failing to communicate key information with the coastguard, who they say did not collect details that would have informed them about the urgency of the situation as the ship struggled in dangerous waters on February 26, 2023.
The Summer Love boat then crashed off Cutro on Italy’s southern coast. There were 35 children among those killed.
Authorities say more people may have been killed, but their bodies were never found.
The boat was coming from Turkiye and carrying people from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Syria when it crashed into the rocks, the AFP news agency reports.
An aircraft belonging to the European Union’s Frontex agency had seen the ship in difficulty and alerted the Italian authorities. Although the Guardia di Finanza (GDF) sent a boat, it turned back due to bad weather.
Charity groups that conduct rescue operations in the Mediterranean, including SOS Humanity and Mediterranea Saving Humans, are civil parties to the case.
Serena Chiodo, Amnesty Italy’s campaign specialist on migration, said the trial is “an opportunity to shine a light on systemic failures and reckless decisions by the Italian authorities that may have contributed to the enormous loss of life”.
“Those who drowned at Cutro could still be alive had authorities acted in line with their search and rescue obligations,” she added.
“Fewer people would be forced to make life-threatening journeys if European governments significantly increased access to safe and regular pathways for people fleeing desperate situations.”
The International Organization for Migration voiced concerns about multiple shipwrecks in the Mediterranean in recent days, noting it is “a stark reminder that this route remains the deadliest migration corridor in the world”.
