http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKCN0WW2B0
Italy rescues hundreds more in Med as migrant flows pick up
Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:35pm GMT
ROME (Reuters) - Italian coast guard and navy vessels rescued 1,361 migrants from boats and rubber dinghies in the southern Mediterranean on Wednesday, officials said, as migrant flows from North Africa pick up.
Having saved some 3,680 people over the past three days, the coast guard said in a statement that a further 350 migrants, most believed to be minors, had been spotted on a boat off Sicily and an operation was under way to bring them ashore.
More than 16,000 people have made the dangerous crossing from north Africa to Italy in the first three months of 2016, some 6,000 more than in the same period last year.
The number of new arrivals is expected to climb further in coming months as warmer, more stable weather kicks in, making it easier for people traffickers to put to sea.
Italian officials have also warned that a deal to limit the number of migrants travelling via Turkey to Greece could increase the flows through Libya to Italy.
However, up until now, the vast majority of migrants using the Mediterranean route have continued to come from sub-Saharan Africa, with no significant increase in numbers of Syrians, Afghans or Iraqis, who have been using the Greek route.
Hundreds of thousands of migrants have reached Italy in recent years, looking for a better life in the West.
Most are believed to have moved swiftly on to wealthier northern Europe, taking advantage of the European Union's passport-free travel zone, but moves to suspend the border pact could make it much more difficult for them to leave.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; editing by John Stonestreet)
http://www.ansa.it/english/news/2016/03/30/rome-resident-gets-sos-phone-calls-from-migrant-boat_adaaa44e-ff9d-411f-879c-acafe36980b2.html
Rome resident gets SOS phone calls from migrant boat
Police alert Coast Guard
30 March 2016
(ANSA) - Rome, March 30 - A Rome resident called police early on Wednesday after he received several phone calls from people asking for help in French and English.
Police answered the next incoming call, and determined that it came from a migrant boat in distress carrying approximately 150 asylum seekers somewhere in the Mediterranean.
Police alerted the Coast Guard, which set off to rescue the callers.
Received on Wed Mar 30 2016 - 16:33:51 EDT