Six Italian Officials Face Trial Over 2023 Migrant Shipwreck That Killed 94, Including 35 Children

Six members of Italy’s police and coastguard will stand trial on Friday over a devastating February 2023 shipwreck that claimed the lives of at least 94 migrants, including 35 children, off the coast of Calabria.  

The disaster, Italy’s deadliest in a decade, occurred when an overcrowded wooden boat carrying migrants from Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria crashed against rocks near the town of Cutro. Around 80 people survived, but dozens of bodies washed ashore in a tragedy that sparked intense criticism of the Italian government’s migration policies.  

The accused—four officers from the Guardia di Finanza (financial crimes police) and two coastguard members—are charged with involuntary manslaughter and “culpable shipwreck,” a crime under Italian law for negligent acts or omissions leading to maritime disaster.  

Prosecutors allege the officers failed to launch a timely rescue operation despite the vessel being tracked for hours. A plane from the European Union border agency Frontex had identified the boat in distress approximately 38 kilometers off the coast and alerted Italian authorities. A patrol boat sent later turned back due to bad weather, and the migrant vessel eventually capsized close to shore.  

The trial, held in Crotone, focuses on alleged communication failures between agencies that may have delayed rescue efforts. Charity organizations involved in Mediterranean rescue operations, including SOS Humanity and Mediterranea Saving Humans, are civil parties in the case.  

Human Rights Watch and other advocacy groups have framed the trial as an indictment not only of individual officers but of Italian state policies that “prioritise deterring and criminalising asylum seekers and migrants over saving lives.”  

Following the shipwreck, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni—whose hard-right government has taken a strict stance on migration—blamed human traffickers and introduced harsher penalties for those responsible for migrant deaths.  

In a related case, two human traffickers were sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2024, while three others received sentences between 14 and 16 years.  

The trial opens amid ongoing migrant tragedies in the Mediterranean. The UN’s International Organization for Migration reported at least 1,340 deaths on the central Mediterranean route last year, with dozens still missing after recent shipwrecks off Libya and Tunisia.