Mediterranean Sea
Italy’s coast guard rescues 600 migrants from fishing boat
Many migrants dare to cross from North Africa to Europe on unseaworthy boats. photo
© Giacomo Zorzi/Seawatch.org/AP/dpa
Hundreds of migrants are in distress south-east of Sicily. They are gradually brought ashore by the Italian Coast Guard.
The Italian coast guard rescued around 600 migrants from a distressed fishing boat in the Mediterranean Sea. The operation took place south-east of Sicily in the Maltese search and rescue zone and under difficult weather conditions, as reported by the Italian news agency Ansa.
More than 100 rescued people have already been brought ashore by a ship belonging to the EU border protection agency Frontex in Catania, Sicily, Ansa wrote in the evening. On Monday morning, 200 more should arrive there. The other 300 people were reportedly aboard a Navy ship en route to the Sicilian city of Augusta.
The aid organization Sea-Watch claims to have discovered several boats in the Mediterranean over the weekend. One of them had 221 people on board who were also rescued by the Italian coast guard, Sea-Watch wrote on Twitter. There was no official information on this.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, more than 32,700 migrants have already arrived in Italy by sea this year. Many dare to cross from North Africa to Europe on unseaworthy boats, which is why there are always accidents with many deaths. Because of the large number of migrants who recently reached Italy, the government in Rome declared a state of emergency a few days ago in order to provide money for accommodation, for example, to particularly affected regions in the south.