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Tourist boat overturns on Italian lake, at least 1 dead; several missing

In this image released by the Italian firefighters a helicopter search for missing after a tourist boat capsized in a storm on Italy’s Lago Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region, Sunday, May 28, 2023, with at least one person confirmed dead. Authorities were searching for several people who were still missing after a sudden whirlwind overturned a boat carrying more than 20 tourists and crew. (Vigili Del Fuoco via AP)

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MILAN (AP) — A tourist boat capsized in a storm on Italy’s Lago Maggiore in the northern Lombardy region on Sunday, with at least one person confirmed dead, Italian media reported.

Authorities were searching for several people who were still missing after a sudden whirlwind overturned a boat carrying more than 20 tourists and crew, the news agency ANSA reported. Italian firefighters said 19 people have been saved. Many reportedly managed to swim to shore.

Rescue operations were continuing with divers, boats and a helicopter.

Firefighter video showed pieces of wood floating in the lake as a helicopter flew overhead.

The whirlwind was part of a storm system that hit the northern region of Lombardy Sunday evening, forcing delays at the Malpensa airport.

Four dead after tourist boat overturns in Italy's Lake Maggiore

Firefighters have recovered four bodies from Lake Maggiore in northern Italian after a tourist boat capsized in a sudden, violent storm.

Key points:

• Strong winds overturned the boat full of tourists
• Authorities say 19 people were rescued
• Some survivors swam to safety

Divers searched overnight after a whirlwind overturned the boat carrying more than 20 tourists and crew on Sunday evening local time.

The final body was recovered early on Monday.

Firefighters said 19 people were saved.

Many reportedly managed to swim to shore, or were picked up by other boats.

Firefighter video released on Sunday showed pieces of wood floating in the lake as a helicopter flew overhead.

The whirlwind was part of a storm system that hit Lombardy on Sunday evening, forcing delays at Milan's Malpensa airport.

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• Maritime Accidents and Incidents

Bodies of four killed after tourist boat overturned in Italian lake recovered

Vessel, carrying more than 20 tourists and crew, capsized after being hit by sudden whirlwind on lago maggiore in northern lombardy.

Many of those involved reportedly managed to swim to shore, or were picked up by other boats. Photograph: Vigili Del Fuoco

Rescue workers have recovered four bodies from a northern Italian lake after a tourist boat capsized in a sudden, violent storm.

Divers searched overnight after a whirlwind overturned the boat carrying more than 20 tourists and crew on Lago Maggiore in Lombardy on Sunday evening.

The final body was recovered early on Monday.

Police did not immediately release the names of the dead, but said they included an Italian man and an Italian woman, an Israeli man and a Russian woman, who was part of the liveaboard crew.

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Firefighters said 19 people were saved. Many reportedly managed to swim to shore, or were picked up by other boats.

Video released on Sunday showed pieces of wood floating in the lake as a helicopter flew overhead.

The whirlwind was part of a storm system that hit Lombardy on Sunday evening, forcing delays at Milan’s Malpensa airport. – AP

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Tourist boat overturns on Italian lake, at least one dead; several missing

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At least 22 dead after tourist boat capsizes in India's Kerala

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One Dead After Boat Capsizes on Underground Cave Tour, Officials Say

Eleven other people were hospitalized with minor injuries after a boat traveling through a man-made cavern in Lockport, N.Y., tipped over, officials said.

By Ed Shanahan ,  Lola Fadulu and Dan Higgins

One person was killed and more than a dozen had to be rescued after a tour boat capsized Monday morning while carrying passengers through a narrow underground cavern in western New York, prompting an all-out response, officials said.

Twenty-eight people were on board when the boat tipped over at the Lockport Cave in Lockport, N.Y., about 20 miles east of Niagara Falls, Luca Quagliano, the city’s fire chief, said at a news conference. Emergency workers rescued 16 people from the water, the chief said; the rest were able to get to safety on their own.

“The boat did a 180-degree turn, so the bottom of the boat was upright in the water,” Chief Quagliano said at the news conference. “A number of victims were on top of that boat initially when rescuers got to them.”

The authorities identified the person who died as a 60-year-old man who became trapped beneath the boat when it capsized. The man’s wife was also on the boat and was injured, Chief Quagliano said. He did not provide other details about the victim.

None of the passengers were wearing life jackets, the chief said, adding that because the cave attraction was privately owned, he and other officials were still trying to determine whether the operator was required to provide them.

Another line of inquiry involved inspection requirements for the flat-bottomed boat. It was not immediately clear which state agency, if any, had regulatory oversight of the attraction.

Steven Abbott, Lockport’s police chief, said the cave was being treated as a crime scene. An inspector from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration was among those involved in the investigation, a spokesman for the agency said.

“We have one individual who has passed, we have a lot of questions that need to be answered,” Chief Abbott said. “Whether or not that leads to charges in the future, I do not know, but as of right now we’re treating it as a crime scene.”

Eleven people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, the worst appearing to be a broken arm, Chief Quagliano said. Of seven who were treated at Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, six were released by 4:30 p.m. and the seventh was expected to be released Monday evening, a spokeswoman said.

The passengers were local residents on an outing sponsored by Destination Niagara USA, a regional tourism group that organizes such events for hospitality industry employees in Niagara County’s towns and cities, officials said. Monday was “Lockport Day.”

Andrea Czopp of Destination Niagara USA, who appeared at the news conference, said she had visited the cave “many times” and had never worn a life jacket.

The police in Lockport said a call about the boat capsizing had come in at about 11:30 a.m. The police and fire departments and other public safety agencies immediately began rescue efforts, officials said.

The boat, which can safely accommodate up to 40 people and has only about two to three feet of clearance on either side as it traverses the tunnellike cave, became unbalanced at the end of its 300-foot route for reasons that were not yet clear, Chief Quagliano said.

Everyone aboard — 27 passengers and one employee — was thrown into the water, which was about 60 degrees and exceeded six feet in depth in places, he said.

A remnant of western New York’s industrial pasts, the cave is adjacent to the Erie Canal and was created in the 19th century as a spillway for the canal. It opened as a tourist attraction in the 1970s. Lockport’s mayor, Michelle Roman, said the death was the first at the attraction that anyone could remember.

The cave was designed by Birdsill Holly, a businessman and inventor, to harness the canal’s downhill water flow to power equipment at his Holly Manufacturing Company, according to newyorkupstate.com . Miners blasted through limestone for eight years to complete it.

As described by tour guides, the cave’s creation relied in part on the labor of orphaned children called powder monkeys who were sent underground to tamp gunpowder into small holes, light it and then run for their lives.

Near the cave on Monday afternoon, firefighters, police officers and New York State troopers formed a human wall around people who appeared to have been rescued from the boat, many wrapped in white towels.

Ashley Kandel of Victor, N.Y., was among those looking on. She and her husband, Tarek, had been scheduled to take the cave tour at 2 p.m. She said she had sensed something might be wrong when they were on their way to the cave in the late morning.

The couple encountered a large number of fire trucks and noticed that streets in the area were blocked off, Ms. Kandel said. She called Lockport Cave to ask about the unusual traffic, but no one answered, she said.

“We were going to face our fear of being underground,” Ms. Kandel said, describing part of the couple’s motivation for taking the tour.

Ed Shanahan is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments on the Metro desk. More about Ed Shanahan

Lola Fadulu is a general assignment reporter on the Metro desk of The Times. She was part of a team that was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for coverage of New York City’s deadliest fire in decades. More about Lola Fadulu

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1. Temple of the Divine Savior

2. Temple-Chapel of St. Matrona

3. Lobnya Park of Culture and Recreation

4. Chamber Stage, Lobnya Drama Theater

5. Hyperboloidal Water Tower

6. Lobnya Art Gallery

7. Palace of Sports Lobnya

8. Lake Kiovo Natural Monument of Federal Significance

9. Lobnya History Museum

10. Memorial Complex Zenitka

11. Kukly i Lyudi Theater

12. Monument Veteran 1943

13. Moscow Defensive Line 1941

14. Temple of Archangel Michael

15. Monument to the Children Prisoners of Fascism

16. Church of St. Philaret of Moscow

17. temple of the icon sporitelnitsa khlebov.

18. Mass Grave of Soldiers Zvonnitsa

19. povorot mall, 20. cyber arena storm.

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23. Volshebnaya Solka

24. Float Studio SAMADHI

25. Patefon

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Operation Zufolo: Australia deployed a ‘charade’ to sustain indefinite immigration detention – it failed

Exclusive: The federal government set out to show it was trying to deport non-citizens, knowing there was a risk a key high court ruling could be overturned. But an insider says it was purely symbolic

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I n July 2022 Australia’s immigration minister, Andrew Giles, was warned of legal “risks” associated with immigration detention and the need to show “concrete and robust steps” to deport non-citizens stuck in limbo.

A taskforce had been set up within the home affairs department to explore third country options to resettle long-term detainees in immigration detention. Its existence was never publicised and references to it were redacted from documents released under freedom of information.

But in the high court on 17 April the Australian Border Force operation that succeeded the taskforce was revealed for the first time: Operation Zufolo.

The solicitor general, Stephen Donaghue, said the operation was a look at “all the long-term cases to evaluate whether there was any possibility of third countries” for resettlement.

But lawyers say there is no evidence the taskforce has succeeded in removing anyone to a third country, and government sources concede it served as a device to head off or boost prospects in problematic court cases.

One government insider says Operation Zufolo exists to “look like we are symbolically doing something” to consider resettlement.

A departmental spokesperson confirmed to Guardian Australia that in May 2022 it established “a third country options taskforce to enhance efforts to address removal barriers for long-term detention cases, particular for those individuals that could not be removed to their home country”.

In November 2022 it was succeeded in the ABF by Operation Zufolo, which is described as the operational and removal phase.

Removals ‘highly unlikely’

The ABF removed 2,274 unlawful non-citizens last financial year, all or almost exclusively to countries that cooperate with removal of their citizens, such as New Zealand.

But the department acknowledges there are “ongoing challenges” removing a “significant proportion of the detainee population” because they are owed protection, are stateless, or their home country won’t accept them due to their criminal history or their refusal to cooperate with deportation.

These are the long-term detainees Operation Zufolo seeks to resettle in third countries, but it is unclear that it has ever successfully done so.

In its July 2022 submission to the immigration minister, the department told Giles it was “highly unlikely” a person would be accepted without “at least significant ties” to the proposed third country.

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Sanmati Verma, the managing lawyer of the Human Rights Law Centre, says the centre is “not directly aware of any instances in which the Australian government has successfully arranged third-country resettlement for a person in [onshore] detention”.

The US and New Zealand resettlement deals are limited to those who came to Australia by boat after July 2013 and then languished in offshore detention.

The onshore detention cohort is made up of the much larger group who flew to Australia legally on another visa and then claimed asylum , or who became unlawful non-citizens by overstaying their time-limited visa or because their visas were cancelled under character provisions.

The department and ABF did not respond to questions seeking anonymised examples or statistics of successful third country resettlement from onshore detention.

“The department and ABF actively explore all avenues to remove unlawful non-citizens from Australia as soon as reasonably practicable” including “genuine efforts to address barriers to removal in all cases, including exploring third country options”, a departmental spokesperson said.

‘Increased risks’ to indefinite detention

Since the high court’s 2004 Al Kateb decision, the Australian government had operated on the basis that indefinite immigration detention was lawful, even in circumstances where it was not possible to deport the non-citizen.

But in November 2023 the high court overturned that precedent in the NZYQ decision , which has so far resulted in more than 150 people being released from detention.

“Before NZYQ, warehousing people in immigration detention was standard practice,” Verma says.

“The government did not consider itself to be under any real obligation to bring an end to people’s detention through their resettlement in another country.”

Despite the Al Kateb precedent standing for two decades the legal risks were building. The department warned Giles it needed to respond to “increased risks” from court cases finding it needed to “pursue third country options”.

Coalition and Labor governments were both advised of the risk that Al Kateb – which was decided by a “bare majority” of four judges to three – could be overturned. The department believed good-faith efforts to resettle those detained would boost the prospect it would continue to be upheld.

Whether Operation Zufolo was thought likely to actually resettle detainees or simply to “look like we are symbolically doing something” on resettlement, as the government insider says, the object to avoid or bolster prospects in court cases was the same.

Verma at the Human Rights Law Centre, which intervened in the NZYQ case and others, says the government “engages in a flurry of activity directed at removal once court proceedings are commenced, but not before”, arguing this is done to cut off challenges.

A ‘leisurely approach’ to removal

One such litigant was Tony Sami, an Egyptian man whose visa was cancelled due to fraud offences and who then stayed in detention for a decade, desperate to remain in Australia to prevent separation from his two Australian children.

Because Sami was refusing to cooperate with Egyptian authorities to obtain a travel document, authorities considered his detention “three-walled”, meaning he could end it at any time by returning to Egypt.

But that changed when in December 2022 the federal court’s Justice Debra Mortimer said there was “no real likelihood” of Sami being removed, a finding that prepared him to go to the high court to challenge Al Kateb.

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Mortimer said before the case departmental officers had taken a “leisurely approach” to removing Sami, followed by a “vastly increased pace” of activity in the weeks before the case’s hearing.

After those damning findings, the Australian government succeeded in involuntarily removing Sami to Egypt .

For others removal proved impossible or was not seriously tried. In the high court, the lawyer Lisa De Ferrari criticised efforts to remove her client ASF17, a bisexual man who refuses to return to Iran , where sex between men is illegal and can attract the death penalty.

“What the commonwealth means by, ‘we did explore third country options’, was limited to … going to him and asking him, ‘are you sure you do not have any relatives in any other country but Iran that we might be able to use as avenues to investigate other countries?’

“That was all that it ever was,” she said. “It never was … about exploring with any third other country – nothing.”

Donaghue said the officer responsible for ASF17’s detention had explained that he was instructed he didn’t need to ask about third countries because Operation Zufolo determined none was available.

“So, the evidence is actually that we [the commonwealth] did try to find somewhere else,” he told the high court. “Unsurprisingly, for a citizen of Iran who could be returned to Iran if he cooperated, we did not find any.”

Undeportable NZYQ wins in high court

The commonwealth eventually met its match in the form of NZYQ, a Rohingya man, who proved impossible to deport because he is stateless and he had been convicted of raping a 10-year-old.

NZYQ launched his high court case on 5 April 2023. From 26 May to 18 September, the government considered giving NZYQ a visa in light of “litigation risk”, a proposal to release him and remove the foundation for the high court challenge.

Yet on 31 May the commonwealth agreed facts of the case including: that the department “had not identified any viable options to remove the plaintiff from Australia”; and had “never successfully removed a person, who has been convicted of an offence involving sexual offending against a child” except to a country of which they were a citizen. NZYQ could not be removed from Australia.

All this was agreed before a single country had been asked to take NZYQ.

Between July and September officials sounded out Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia because NZYQ had family members in both.

On 29 August the home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, asked the department to progress all avenues to remove NZYQ, to leave “no stone unturned”, according to a departmental email.

On 16 September, Giles’s office said he was comfortable with this approach. Ministerial involvement resulted in approaches to Australia’s Five Eyes allies.

The commonwealth amended the facts of the case to include its removal efforts, as the legal strategy shifted to arguing that – unlike Al Kateb – it was not impossible to deport NZYQ.

No country said yes. The best the commonwealth could say when the high court heard the case on 7 and 8 November was that the US had agreed to take a “hard look”.

Deportation was a key component of the legal strategy, to distinguish NZYQ from Al Kateb by showing removal was still possible.

In the hearing NZYQ’s counsel, Craig Lenehan, said the removal efforts were done “under the shadow of this litigation”.

A “charade of working towards” removal was not enough to justify indefinite detention, he said.

The high court ruled there was “no real prospect of the removal of the plaintiff from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future”.

All seven justices agreed that if deportation is not possible, then detention is punitive and breaches the constitution’s separation of powers.

The bare majority who gave a green light to indefinite detention in Al Kateb had been replaced by a unanimous red light from the Stephen Gageler court.

By one of its key performance indicators, propping up the legality of indefinite detention, Operation Zufolo had failed.

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