EUROPE-MIGRANTS/REGGIO CALABRIA Some 800 migrants rescued at sea taken to port in southern Italy

Record ID: 144640

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/REGGIO CALABRIA Some 800 migrants rescued at sea taken to port in southern Italy
  • Date: 8th August 2015
  • Summary: REGGIO CALABRIA, ITALY (AUGUST 8, 2015) (REUTERS) MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING NORWEGIAN RESCUE VESSEL SIEM PILOT IN PORT YOUNG FEMALE MIGRANTS WALKING DOWN GANG WAY AND BEING CHECKED BY MEDICAL WORKERS MIGRANTS WALKING DOWN GANG WAY MEDICAL WORKERS CHECKING MIGRANTS AS THEY DISEMBARK FEMALE MIGRANTS ON GANG WAY WAITING TO DISEMBARK MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING IN PORT / WOMAN WRAPPED I
  • Embargoed: 23rd August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVAQ1O2LOWC1YLLILJ2HEBUBKN7
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The Norwegian rescue vessel Siem Pilot on Saturday (August 8) morning brought some 800 migrants rescued from boats in the Mediterranean to port in southern Italy's Reggio Calabria.
    The migrants were rescued in several operations on Thursday (August 6), a day after some 200 migrants were feared to have drowned in a migrant boat shipwreck in the same area.
    Among the migrants disembarking the Siem Pilot in Reggio Calabria were several women and many children.
    The migrants, mainly from Africa and Syria, were inspected by medical workers as they got off the ship and provided with food and drinks. Shoes and clothing were also given to those in need.
    The arrival came a day after Italy arrested five North African men on Friday (August 7) on suspicion of multiple homicide and human trafficking in the presumed drowning of the 200 people, saying they used clubs and knives against migrants.
    Most of the dead were locked in the hold of a boat that sank off the coast of Libya on Wednesday (August 5). Police said many children were believed to be among those who perished.
    Police said the accused men charged the migrants between $1,200 and $1,800 for the voyage, depending on where they would be placed on the deck of the boat. Those in the hold paid about half as much as those above, they added.
    The boat was carrying some 650 people. Italian and Irish ships rescued more than 400 migrants and recovered 26 bodies, including three children.
    The episode was the latest in a long string of recent migrant disasters in the Mediterranean.
    In April, a 20-metre (66-foot) vessel capsized as it approached a merchant ship that had come to its assistance, and up to 900 people were killed in the deadliest shipwreck in the Mediterranean for decades.
    More than 2,000 migrants and refugees have died so far this year trying to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 during the whole of last year, the International Organization for Migration said.
    Traffickers have sent more than 90,000 migrants by sea to Italy so far this year, the UN refugee agency says. Italy took in 170,000 in 2014.
    This summer's mass arrivals in both Italy and Greece show the crisis is worsening. Immigrants fleeing violence and poverty at home continue to pour in from Africa and the Middle East.
    Many look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, including to Britain from Calais in France.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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