63 migrants dead off Italian coast

Feb. 27 (UPI) -- The death toll from a wooden boat transporting dozens of migrants that smashed to pieces off the Italian coast over the weekend has risen to 63, authorities said.

The Italian Coast Guard said in a statement that the boat broke apart early Sunday on rocks "a few meters" off the coast of Calabria. Video of the boat debris accumulating on shore was posted to the Coast Guard's social media sites.

A rescue mission was dispatched, resulting in some 80 migrants saved from the cold waters, including some who were able to make it ashore. However, the death toll reached 63 early Monday, Italy's ANSA news agency reported. The Coast Guard initially said 43 bodies had been recovered.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said more than two dozen of the victims were citizens of his country.

"I have directed foreign office to ascertain facts as early as possible & take the nation into confidence," he said in a statement.

Save the Children said early Monday that 10 minors from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria were also among the dead and that several more were still missing.

While the Italian Coast Guard states there were about 120 migrants aboard the vessel, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said its occupancy was as high as 200.

Meloni, a far-right politician who became the European country's leader last fall, has come under criticism for her immigration policy, specifically over an order that is to go into effect Wednesday that bars search and rescue ships from conducting multiple searches for migrants at sea.

The prime minister in a statement blamed the weekend incident on human trafficking.

"The government is committed to preventing departures, and with them the perpetration of these tragedies, and will continue to do so, first of all by demanding maximum collaboration from states of departure and of origin," Meloni said. "The action of those who today speculate on these deaths speaks for itself, after having exalted the illusion of an immigration without rules."

Italian President Sergio Mattarella called on the international community to remove "the underlying causes of" war, persecution, terrorism, poverty and climate change to stymie the flow of migrants.

He also demanded in a statement that the European Union "finally take on the concrete responsibility of governing the migration phenomenon" from human traffickers.

Pope Francis on Sunday remarked on the situation, stating he is praying "for those who are lost and for those who have survived."

According to UNICEF, there have been more than 120 deaths, including children, along the Central Mediterranean route so far this year and more than 25,800 since 2014.

"UNICEF reiterates that protecting and saving lives at sea is a mandatory humanitarian imperative, as well as a legal obligation of states under customary and conventional law," Andrea Iacomini, spokesperson for UNIFEC Italy, said in a statement.