A 70-year-old woman who had fled Afghanistan and reached Italy after a dangerous Mediterranean crossing died of cardiac arrest on Wednesday, May 18, in the Calabrian sea port of Roccella Ionica. Magistrates are investigating her sudden death.

The woman had reached the port of Roccella Ionica in the night between Monday and Tuesday together with 96 others, including many children.

Immediately after landing, the woman was visited at least twice by a medical team of USMAF, a healthy ministry agency carrying out medical checkups on passengers, sources said.

Her condition was judged to be precarious but not serious enough to require hospitalization. The woman was accommodated in a tent camp set up several weeks ago in the port, following an increased number of arrivals. On Wednesday morning, her condition deteriorated suddenly and she died despite the immediate intervention of 118 health workers and Red Cross volunteers. After her death, the woman was found to have been suffering from diabetes.

Prosecutors in the nearby city of Locri are expected to order an autopsy while police investigate the death.

17 arrivals in Roccella in 2022

A tent camp has been set up to provide short-term accommodation for migrants who arrive at the port of Roccella, one of the preferred destinations last year of human smugglers departing from Turkey's coasts.

However, due to a recent increase in arrivals, the camp hosts a high number of migrants who are forced to live in poor conditions. With the latest landing, the number of arrivals in the first few months of 2022 in Roccella has risen to 17.

Another landing in the same Calabrian coast of the Locride area, in Siderno, had a tragic ending when two alleged Russian smugglers drowned.