Thirty-two migrants who survived the shipwreck off the southern Italian town of Cutro five weeks ago were transfered to Germany on Friday (March 31), where they will be allowed to begin their asylum process.

The group is composed of 28 Afghans, two Syrians, one Iraqi and one Somali, according to ANSA. They will join relatives already living in Germany, reported Reuters.

The transfer was facilitated by the UN migration agency IOM. A photo on IOM's German Twitter feed showed some of the migrants disembarking from the charter plane that flew them to the northern German city of Hamburg.

"IOM is pleased to have helped with this transfer as part of the voluntary solidarity mechanism in the EU," read the tweet, which thanked all the partners involved in the transfer.

Shipwreck --one of the deadliest in Italian waters

Since the shipwreck was first reported, the death toll from the disaster has gradually increased. On April 2, the news agency KNA reported that a further body of a young man aged around 20 years old had been discovered from the shipwreck, more than a month after it took place, bringing the death toll to at least 92.

The shipwreck has been classed as one of the deadliest sea incidents to have taken place in Italian waters. In all, a total of 80 people survived.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 27,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea.

The majority of them cross the central Mediterranean from the coasts of North Africa. However, an ever increasing number of ships are attempting to sail directly to Italy from Turkey, which was the case of the ship which wrecked off the coast of Cutro. It was reported that the migrants set off from Izmir in Turkey, rounding the southern coasts of Greece, before heading for Italy.

Accusations of not doing enough to help

The European Border Agency Frontex produced a report following the shipwreck. In it, it explained that when its surveillance planes had first spotted the ship sailing towards Italy, there had been only one person visible on board. However, heat-seeking cameras had shown that there could be many more people hidden below deck.

The authorities and Frontex tracked the boat as it got nearer the coast of Italy, but when it got into difficulty just off the shore, Italian rescue boats took several hours to arrive and help, saying they were hampered by bad weather.

The Italian authorities and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have strongly denied accusations of not doing enough to prevent the events off Cutro from occuring.

With Reuters and KNA