Italy has arrested three people believed to be the traffickers who put up to 200 people on a wooden boat that capsized early Sunday off the country’s southern coast, killing dozens of people – including children.

Police officer Alberto Lipolis said a Turk and two Pakistanis put the migrants on the boat, which left Turkey for Italy despite bad weather.

They were identified by the survivors as “the main culprits of the tragedy”.

Rescuers said most of the migrants on board were from Afghanistan, while others were from Iran, Somalia and Syria.

“According to the preliminary investigations, they allegedly asked each of the migrants about 8,000 euros for the deadly trip,” Lipolis pointed out. “All three have been arrested.”

At least 64 dead

The vessel left Izmir in western Turkey sometime late last week.

The vessel ran aground and broke up early Sunday in the area of ​​Stecato di Cutro, a seaside resort on Calabria’s eastern coast, as gale-force winds prevailed.

Rescuers recovered the body of another man today, bringing the death toll to 64, including about 14 children. There are 80 survivors from the wreck, who have stated that 150 to 200 people were on board.

“We will continue the search (…) until we are sure we have found everyone,” said Rocco Martato, a member of the fire brigade’s diving team.

The tragedy reignited the migration debate in Europe and Italy, where the newly elected right-wing government has adopted tough new rules for rescuing migrants at sea, prompting strong reactions from the UN and aid groups.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said in an interview on Monday that she had sent a letter to EU institutions asking the bloc to take immediate action to stop the departures of ships carrying migrants.

“The more people leave, the more people are at risk of dying,” he told state-run RAI television. “The only way to deal with this seriously, humanely, is to stop the departures,” Meloni added.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached Italy by sea in the past decade.

The UN’s Missing Migrants Project has recorded more than 20,000 deaths and disappearances in the central Mediterranean — the world’s deadliest migration route — since 2014, including more than 220 already this year.