Dozens of migrants, including a baby, killed after their overloaded boat was shipwrecked off the coast of Italy

• 45 migrants have died trying to reach Italy in a small boat. 
• Among the dead are a newborn baby and a seven-year-old boy. 
• Up to 180 people are believed to have been aboard when the wooden boat hit rocks. 

At least 45 migrants, including a baby, have died after their boat sank as they attempted to reach southern Italy, Italian news agency AGI reports. 

A seven-year-old boy was also among the deceased. 

The boat, carrying between 150 and 180 people, broke in half after crashing into a rock in rough seas as it approached Crotone, southern Italy. 

Eighty migrants were rescued, and 21 were taken to hospital, the news agency reports. 

According to a statement from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, the boat was just 20 meters (65 feet) long. 

Authorities say the migrants were mostly from  Iran, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, according to AGI. 

The boat was a wooden sailing vessel from Turkey and had been at sea for three or four days, Manuela Curra, a provincial government official, told Reuters. 

Sky News reports that Danilo Maida, a spokesman for the firefighters in the Calabria region, said emergency workers are continuing to work to find survivors but that the search is made difficult by harsh weather conditions. 

The statement from the Prime Minister's office suggests that the migrants on the boat paid traffickers to get them to Italy, saying "it is inhumane to exchange the lives of men, women, and children for the price of the 'ticket' paid by them in the false perspective of a safe journey." 

The statement continued, "The Government is committed to preventing the departures and, with them, the unfolding of these tragedies."

 Italy's far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni took office in October 2022, partly on an anti-immigration policy.

Earlier this month, a small boat crossing in Italy o the small island of Lampedusa and carrying a mother and baby among a group of 10 people was lost at sea, Reuters reported. 

Crossing the Mediterranean on ill-suited vessels has become a precarious route to Europe for migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers.  More than 20,000 people have died or gone missing since 2014, reported BBC News.