ROME, Italy – Italian With the return of calm seas, migrant smugglers launched dozens of boats from Tunisia over the weekend, and over 1,200 migrants ended up on a little Italian island, with others reported lost at sea, according to the Italian Coast Guard on Monday.
According to coast guard personnel, they responded to 35 vessels that departed Tunisia, three of which sank.
Three migrants were reported missing in a shipwreck 20 nautical miles off the coast of Lampedusa island by coast guard and border police vessels. In a second, in Malta’s search-and-rescue area, survivors reported that 20 people were missing, while Italian rescuers retrieved a man’s body in a third, also in Malta’s rescue region, according to the Coast Guard.
According to the report, perhaps 20 more boats were crammed with migrants in the Mediterranean on Monday night.
According to the Coast Guard, the Coast Guard’s aviation and naval assets, the Border Police, the European border protection agency Frontex, and a humanitarian organization were all involved in the help.
Dozens more migrants sat near Lampedusa’s port on Monday morning, awaiting transit to the island’s overcrowded shelter or, eventually, to Sicily or the Italian mainland.
A Tunisian fishing boat off the coast of Lampedusa aided a troubled migrant boat carrying 34 people and a body earlier Monday. According to Italian news reports, the survivors were later transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel.
After four days of severe seas, 640 migrants arrived at Lampedusa on Sunday, with hundreds more arriving on Monday.
According to Italian news reports, the survivors were later transferred to an Italian coast guard vessel.
Last week, Italian authorities transferred migrants from Lampedusa to Sicily to the mainland through commercial ferries and military vessels, lowering Lampedusa’s migrant center below its 400-person capacity. However, with the influx of boats beginning on Sunday, the number of migrants on the island soon increased, and authorities were racing once more to organize more transfers off the island.
Separately, Doctors Without Borders said its rescue ship Geo Barents rescued 75 migrants, including 40 youngsters, from a wooden boat that capsized in international waters off Libya on Monday.
The rescue ship must now wait for Italian officials to assign a place where the migrants can disembark. To shorten their time at sea, the right-wing administration has dispatched charity ships to northern Italy ports far from the rescue zone. According to government officials, the vessels facilitate illegal migration by offering safety to the passengers of traffickers.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, more than 36,600 migrants had landed in Italy.
Even though far-right Premier Giorgia Meloni has spearheaded a crackdown on both traffickers and charity ships, migrants continue to face risky trips in the Central Mediterranean, sailing from Tunisia, Libya, and Turkey, in the hope of finding a job or family in Europe.
According to the Italian Interior Ministry, more than 36,600 migrants had landed in Italy since the beginning of the year as of Monday morning. This is more than four times the number for the same period in the preceding two years.
Most asylum applications are denied because they are escaping poverty rather than conflict or persecution. However, because only a few nations have repatriation treaties with Italy, migrants denied asylum may remain in the country for years in legal limbo or attempt to reach northern European countries.
Italy has pleaded with other European Union countries for years to take in some of the refugees.
SOURCE – (AP)
