The white metal box, stamped with the letters UN, was winched from the Norwegian ship “Siem Pilot” on to a waiting lorry at the port of Catania several hours after more than 300 survivors had disembarked.
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The victims suffocated of toxic gas inhalation in the hold of a migrant vessel off the coast of Libya on Sunday.
Deputy Mayor Marco Consoli says the fireworks display for the city’s patron saint day celebration was scrapped “out of respect for the 49” who perished inside an overcrowded smuggling boat on Saturday.
The corpses of 49 migrants who died in horrifying circumstances in the latest Mediterranean boat tragedy were delivered to Sicily yesterday in a refrigerated container. Italian coastguard officials said survivors include numerous victims’ widows.
A crane was deployed to transfer the container holding the dead onto a truck for transport to a morgue. The burials will be in Catania’s cemetery.
With southern cities running out of shelters for asylum seekers, survivors will be sent north. About 103,000 rescued migrants have reached Italy so far this year.
A total of 313 people on the boat were rescued by an Italian Navy patrol ship.
Earlier this week, there have been some 7,000 refugees and migrants on Kos, however that quantity has fallen to some 2,500, based on Greek police, with those that have registered travelling on to Athens.
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The alleged traffickers were three Moroccans, including the 20-year-old captain of the ill-fated vessel, four Libyans and a 17-year-old Syrian.
