The families of asylum seekers who drowned off the coast of Italy when their overcrowded boat capsized due to bad weather have told the tragic stories that led them to make the desperate trip to Europe.

At least 61 migrants – among them women, children, and an infant – died when their wooden boat broke apart on rocks near Calabria.

Maedeh Hosseini, 17, from Afghanistan, was one of the passengers who sadly is believed to have perished.

Maedeh, who dreamed of becoming an astronaut and even wrote a letter to NASA, fled with her family to Iran when the Taliban took power in her country in August 2021.

Her family says she never stopped trying to achieve her dreams.

Maedeh’s plan was to go to Europe to continue her education.

She decided to go to Turkey by land and then enter Europe by sea.

Although her mother, Mehtab, did not want her to make the dangerous journey by herself, Maedeh would not stop insisting.

Mehtab told local media: “I said, ‘Go, my daughter. I entrust you to God.’ I believed in my daughter and that she would be able to handle this. I had raised her myself.”

Maedeh got shot in the leg at the Turkish border and kept on going despite her injuries.

She made several unsuccessful attempts to travel to Europe and was arrested twice, but Maedeh had made up her mind and was ready to reach her destination at any cost.

Her family was devastated upon learning that she had perished in the shipwreck.

They are held up in Iran as irregular migrants and are unable to get a visa out of the country.

Mehtab said: “I have not given up hope yet. I didn’t let them recite a funeral prayer for my daughter. I did not wear black clothes myself. I didn’t let anyone console me.”

Meanwhile, other families that were able to travel to southern Italy rushed to find their relatives.

Leila Timuri, 47, and her daughter drove non-stop from Germany to Italy.

Leila, who left her brother, Zabih Timuri, behind when she fled to Germany from Afghanistan in 2015, said she had waited for more than seven years to see him again.

Her 33-year-old brother, his wife Mina, 23, and their sons Haseeb, Aref and Akef were all on the boat.

Leila told local media: “When I arrived at the scene, the first thing I saw was the body of my 18-month-old nephew Haseeb.

“They [local officials] took me to a room and gave me photos for identification.”

She went through countless pictures of dead bodies, injured people and other survivors but could not find her brother and the rest of his family in any of them.

Desperate, Leila went to the beach and searched for her missing family members with her bare hands among the remains of the shipwreck.

She said: “I couldn’t sit and wait. I saw the pieces of timber of the boat. I saw the clothes. I felt that my brother was waiting for help under the sand…but the only thing I found was my brother’s shoes. Later, I also found his coat and his wife’s bag.”

The families of the perished victims say all they want now is for the rest of the wreckage to be pulled from the water and to find the bodies of their loved ones.

The exact number of people on board the ship that sailed from Izmir, Turkey, and sank off the southern coast of Italy is not yet known.

It is believed that the 20-metre- (66-foot-) long boat had boarded between 140 and 150 individuals.

Officials confirmed that the bodies of 70 people, including 12 children and a toddler, were found on the beach, and that 80 refugees, including some in critical condition, were rescued and taken for medical treatment.

Two rescued passengers claimed the boat they boarded first broke down after leaving the coast of Izmir, and the smugglers sent another boat.

The passengers were transferred from one boat to another in the middle of the water and continued their journey to Italy.