"The national regulatory framework, moreover subject to international constraints with specific regard to the matter of rescue at sea, has absolutely not been modified by the current Government. Moreover, the technical and operational modalities of the rescues cannot in any way be subjected to political constraints or to interventions outside the chain of command. Therefore, claiming that the rescues would have been conditioned or even prevented by the Government constitutes a serious falsehood that offends, above all, the honor and professionalism of our operators engaged daily at sea, in particularly difficult scenarios". So the Minister of the Interior Matteo Piantedosi today rejected in an urgent information to the Chamber of Deputies the accusations made against the executive after the sinking of Cutro.

"I want to renew first of all my condolences, my personal and that of the whole Government, for the victims of this umpteenth, tragic, shipwreck and the closeness to their families and survivors", began the head of the Interior Ministry. The toll, he continued, "is not yet definitive", but "the updates from the Prefecture of Crotone bring the number of victims to 72, of which 28 minors, while the survivors are 80. Of these, 54 are welcomed in the local reception center for asylum seekers, 12 in the Sai System (reception and integration system, ed) in Crotone, 8 are hospitalized, 2 unaccompanied minors have been placed in dedicated facilities and 3 subjects, presumably smugglers, have been arrested ".

"For thenecessary reconstruction of the facts, which must take place there, the Public Prosecutor's Office of Crotone is investigating the matter. We will therefore await with confidence and respect the outcome of the judicial investigations", says the minister, but then goes into detail about the facts that led to the massacre: "The crossing starts from Cesme, in Turkey, around 3.00 am on February 22 in optimal weather conditions: conditions that, however, worsen after 2 or 3 days. According to the survivors' account, there were about 180 people on board the boat, as well as 4 smugglers, two Turks and two Pakistanis. Three hours after the start of navigation, a failure in the boat's engine led two smugglers to contact, via mobile phone, an accomplice. After another three hours of waiting, the migrants are joined by a second boat, piloted by three other smugglers. After the transshipment of the migrants, the navigation continues towards the Italian coasts. The migrants note that the smugglers have satellite phones and a device that appeared to be 'Jammer' type, capable of inhibiting the transmission and reception of radio waves. Moreover, when the boat crosses off the Greek coast, the smugglers replace the Turkish flag with the Greek one. During the navigation, always according to the narrative of the migrants, the smugglers force them to stay below deck, making them get on deck only a few minutes to get air".

Once off the coast of Calabria, "on the basis of the elements acquired by the Ministry of Justice, the smugglers decide to disembark in a place considered safer and atnight, fearing that in the planned location there could be controls. The plan provided for the arrival close to the sandy shore, with the subsequent landing and escape to the mainland". Around 4 am on Sunday "on the emergency user 112 comes a telephone request for help from an international number that was geolocated by the operator of the operations center of the provincial command of the Carabinieri of Crotone and communicated, with geographical coordinates, to the Operations Room of the Port Authority of Crotone. This is the precise moment in which, for the first time, the need for rescue for the Italian authorities is realized". In the moments immediately preceding the shipwreck the navigation "had continued until 3.50, when, about 200 meters from the coast, flashing lights coming from the beach had been spotted by the boat and at that point the smugglers, fearing the presence of the police along the coast, make a sharp turn in an attempt to change direction to get away from that stretch of sea. At that juncture, the boat, being very close to the coast and in the midst of high waves, hits, in all probability, the shallow water (a shoal) and due to the breaking of the lower part of the hull, begins to embark water "