A new wave of migrants on Monday and
Tuesday reached the Calabrian city of Crotone and the Sicilian
island of Lampedusa, with the latter recording hundreds of
arrivals.
A reported 208 migrants rescued from four different boats
reached Lampedusa in the night between Monday and Tuesday.
Shortly before midnight, a coast guard vessel rescued a
10-meter-long boat with 141 people on board, including citizens
of Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, Syria
and Sudan.
The passengers said they had departed from Zawiya, in Libya,
paying between 5 and 7,000 dollars and that they intended to
reach France, Germany and the Netherlands.
EU border agency Frontex and finance police vessels also
apprehended three boats carrying, respectively, 24, 26 and 17
migrants from Pakistan, Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia and Afghanistan.
The first two groups were travelling on two dinghies that had
departed from Ras Jedir, in Libya, while a third had departed
from Tripoli.
Landings resumed on Lampedusa on Monday, when 571 people reached
the island on 12 boats over the course of 24 hours.
Meanwhile 26 minors and 20 women were among the 99 people
rescued in the night of Monday by coast guards and taken to the
port of Crotone, in Calabria.
They were on a 16-metre-long sailboat when they were intercepted
30 miles south of Crotone by port authorities.
Most of the passengers, who had departed from Turkey four days
before, hailed from Afghanistan.
They included six minors travelling alone.
There were also an Algerian woman and three Iranian men.
The migrants, including four pregnant women, were in good
health, according to healthcare officials from Crotone's local
health authority.
Only one Afghan citizen was hospitalized because he was
seriously dehydrated.
The migrants were taken to the hosting centre of Isola Capo
Rizzuto.
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