Nearly 500 illegal migrants arrived last night at the southern Italian port of Crotone on a small fishing boat, which was escorted to the shores of the Calabria region by Italy's coast guard due to stormy weather, the report said.

The situation with illegal migrants, who arrive daily in the Apennines from Asia and Africa, has escalated after a refugee ship with some 180 people aboard sank off the coast of Crotone during a storm in the Ionian Sea on the night of February 26.

According to Italian authorities, 72 people died in the shipwreck, including 28 minors, and only 80 migrants were rescued.

On Thursday, the Italian Council of Ministers approved a jail term of up to 30 years for people smugglers following the deadly shipwreck.

The tragedy sparked a heated public debate in the Apennines, during which some public figures and the media stated that the incident was the result of insufficient attention paid by Italian authorities to the problem of rescuing migrants at sea.

According to the Italian Interior Ministry, as of March 10, more than 17,500 migrants have arrived in the country by sea since the beginning of 2023. In 2021 and 2022, this figure did not exceed 6,000 people.

(With UNI inputs)