Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2014 19:16:48 +0200
Italy says rescues more than 2,500 migrants since early Thursday
Fri Jun 6, 2014 8:38am GMT
* Navy went to aid of 17 different vessels
* Flow of boat migrants set to break 2011, Arab Spring record
* Italy wants more EU help, UN intervention in Libya
By Steve Scherer
ROME, June 6 (Reuters) - Italy has rescued more than 2,500 men, women and
children from overcrowded boats in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily
since early Thursday, the navy said, with good weather favouring departures
from North Africa.
Italian navy and coast guard ships monitoring the waters off the Libyan and
Tunisian coasts went to the aid of 17 different boats over the period, the
navy said on Friday morning, adding that rescue efforts are continuing.
One ship, the San Giorgio, took aboard 998 migrants, including 214 women and
157 children, from five different vessels, the navy said in a statement.
"The improving weather and sea conditions have favoured the departures," the
coast guard said in a separate statement.
Although the authorities gave no details about the nationalities of the
migrants, they often include Syrians fleeing civil war and Eritreans evading
military conscription.
Italy set up Europe's biggest search and rescue mission - called Mare
Nostrum or "Our Sea" - almost eight months ago after 366 migrants fleeing
African countries drowned when their boat capsized a mile from Sicily.
The mission to patrol the waters between Italy and Africa to prevent further
tragedies employs a drone, several helicopters and airplanes, dozens of
coast guard vessels and five navy ships.
The number of boat migrants who have reached Italy this year has already
topped the more than 40,000 who came during all of 2013. The pace of
arrivals is on track to exceed the record of 62,000 set in 2011 during the
Arab Spring uprisings.
Italy's immigration centres are groaning under the flood and bureaucrats are
struggling to process tens of thousands of requests to be hosted temporarily
for humanitarian reasons or given asylum.
Italy has repeatedly asked for more European Union countries to join the
effort to patrol one of the most popular migrant routes between Africa and
Europe, but so far only Slovenia has chipped in, offering one ship for two
months late last year.
Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last week urged the United Nations to intervene
in Libya, where criminal gangs charge migrants more than $1,000 each for a
spot on unsafe vessels, to try to limit the departures.
The recent flood of boat migrants has helped revive the anti-immigrant
Northern League, which had lost much of its support over the last two years
due to corruption scandals and leadership changes. (Reporting by Steve
Scherer; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
C Thomson Reuters 2014 All rights reserved
Migrants walk after they disembarked from a navy ship in the Sicilian
harbour of Augusta June 1, 2014. REUTERS/Antonio Parrinello
(image/jpeg attachment: image001.jpg)