(ANSAmed) - Rome, July 18 - Italy's Mare Nostrum (Our Sea)
migrant search and rescue operation has saved 3,510 lives in the
past two days, officials said Friday.
The Etna navy supply ship is carrying a total of 2,128
refugees rescued off various boats in distress, including 574
people rescued Thursday night when their vessel began taking on
water.
A coast guard vessel on Friday brought 251 Nigerian and
Syrian refugees to the resort town of Pozzallo, which is located
on the south-eastern tip of Sicily, facing northern Africa. The
224 men, 25 women, three of them pregnant, and two minors were
rescued off an 18-meter wooden boat 40 miles off the Libyan city
of Tripoli.
As well, two Italian navy vessels are currently taking to
Sicily a total of 1,194 people that were rescued in the past 36
hours, with additional help from two civilian vessels.
Another 1,278 migrants from Eritrea, Somalia, Syria and
Pakistan have arrived on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa,
which is the first landfall for boats sailing from north Africa.
Among them are at least 176 women and 30 children, said Save the
Children child welfare NGO.
A total of 1,171 asylum seekers, half of them Eritrean,
reached the city of Trapani on Thursday, according to the
International Organization for Migration (IOM).
The rest are from Gambia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Palestine,
Senegal, Syria, Togo.
"A total of 67,000 migrants and asylum seekers have reached
Italy since the beginning of the year, including over 6,500
unaccompanied children," said IOM mission chief José Angel
Oropeza.
"They include many victims of human trafficking," Oropeza
went on. The IOM has set up anti-trafficking teams in Puglia and
Sicily to help identify and protect victims of exploitation, he
said.
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