EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SICILY ARRIVALS Over 360 African migrants rescued at sea reach Sicilian port

Record ID: 145324

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SICILY ARRIVALS Over 360 African migrants rescued at sea reach Sicilian port
  • Date: 2nd August 2015
  • Summary: POZZALLO, SICILY, ITALY (AUGUST 2, 2015) (REUTERS) SHIP ASSO 29 APPROACHING POZZALLO HARBOUR MIGRANTS ON DECK OF SHIP VARIOUS OF SHIP APPROACHING DOCKSIDE MIGRANTS ON SHIP EMERGENCY WORKERS GESTURING TO MIGRANTS ON SHIP TO SIT DOWN EMERGENCY WORKERS STANDING BY ON QUAYSIDE SHIP WORKERS ON SHIP WITH ROPES VARIOUS OF EMERGENCY WORKERS STANDING BY RED CROSS MEDICAL TENT MIGRA
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACXSB0CW4XNFLZLNEUNLCUM856
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Over 360 African migrants arrived in the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo on Sunday (August 2), after being rescued at sea.
    They were some of the 1,800 migrants plucked from seven overcrowded vessels by the Italian coast guard over the weekend.
    Tug ship Asso 29 docked in Pozzallo in the mid-afternoon and emergency workers were on hand to help the 361 people, including 60 women and 15 minors, disembark.
    While there was no breakdown by nationality of those rescued on Saturday, about a quarter of migrant arrivals this year have come from Eritrea, followed by Nigerians, Somalis, Sudanese and Syrians, according to the UN refugee agency.
    "We are here in Pozzallo to meet this latest boat carrying around 360 people, most of them coming from Eritrea. Yet again, there are many women with children. Up to now, we have sent four pregnant women to hospital and two young men with fractures, probably sustained when they were still in the desert in Libya," said Dr. Chiara Montaldo, who coordinates Médecins sans Frontières' efforts in Sicily to provide medical and psychological care to migrants rescued from boats in the Mediterranean.
    The Mediterranean has become the world's most deadly barrier for migrants and refugees, with 3,500 thought to have died at sea last year and almost 2,000 so far this year.
    Over the weekend, five corpses were found on a large rubber boat carrying 212, the Italian coast guard said.
    "One of our teams is on its way to Palermo because unfortunately we have been informed of the arrival of yet another boat that has dead people on board. In this case we are talking about five people, who seem to be four Nigerian women and one man from Ghana, who died on an inflatable boat, it seems from dehydration or asphyxiation. On board the MSF boat that rescued them, there are some of their relations, in particular the wife and two children of the Ghanaian man and the husband and three children of one of the Nigerian women," said Montaldo.
    The boat carrying the five victims and the survivors is expected to arrive in Palermo on Monday (August 3).
    Italy has had about 90,000 sea migrant arrivals so far this year, after receiving 170,000 in 2014, the UN refugee agency says. Many of the newcomers look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, including to England from Calais, France.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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