CROTONE — At least 70 people: that's the death toll of the shipwreck 10 days ago of the Turkish boat that crashed near the southern Italian coast of Calabria. Sixteen were children.

But there is now also the fate of the 98 survivors to consider. And human rights lawyers have discovered that they are being housed in the former Reception Center for Asylum Seekers of Crotone. Some in Italy may remember that several years ago this same facility was discovered to be part of an investigation of misappropriation of European funds by the Calabrian mafia, the 'Ndrangheta. Investigators then found poor conditions in the center, including the serving of spoiled food to the migrants it housed.

Now the facility is back at the center of the storm because of the conditions of the survivors of the Feb. 26 shipwreck, which occurred on the coast near the city of Crotone.

“They are being held arbitrarily in two sheds that are inadequate not only for those who escaped a terrible shipwreck, but for any human being," says Alessandra Sciurba, professor at the University of Palermo and coordinator of the Migration and Rights Legal Clinic. "It must be closed."

Sciurba pointed out the paradox of the outpouring from Italians over the deaths, and the conditions of the survivors. “On one side there is a country that is moved by this tragedy, on the other side there are people who are denied their rights.”