A tragedy, perhaps the greatest in recent years, that occurred last April 18, 2015 in the Strait of Sicily, where over 700 migrants massacred on a fishing boat left from east of Tripoli lost their lives. Midnight had passed when, about 70 miles north of the Libyan coast, the boat they were traveling on was reached by King Jacob, a rescue container ship, with the flag of Portugal, ordered by the Coast Guard. And there, the massacre: the migrants at the sight of the rescues moved en masse on the same side and the boat capsized. Twenty-eight those rescued, over 700 those drowned or remained closed in the hold.
Fourteen months after the tragedy, thanks to the Navy, the wreck has been recovered. The operations, which began on April 27th, have just ended: last June 27th, the wreck was hooked at a depth of 370 meters and lifted from the seabed towards the surface through a robotic recovery system, designed and built by the Company "IDMC. Impresub - Diving and Marine Contractor Srl" of Trento, and installed on board the ship Ievoli Ivory.
Transported by the same to the bay of Augusta, where it arrived this morning just before noon, it was placed inside a refrigerated tensile structure, 30 meters long, 20 meters wide and 10 meters high. Here the recovery of the bodies from the wreck will begin. part of the staff of the National Fire Brigade and subsequently by the staff of the Military Corps of the Italian Red Cross.
The bodies will be examined by health experts from various universities coordinated by Dr. Cattaneo of the Laboratory of Forensic Anthropology and Odontology (Labanof), active in the Department of Human Morphology and Biomedical Sciences of Forensic Medicine of the University of Milan, in order to acquire information useful to create a network at European level that allows to trace the identity of the bodies through the crossing of data. An action of civility and respect towards those who risk their lives to seek a better future and who see Italy once again teaching the rest of Europe.
