- Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SICILY Migrants brought ashore after mass rescue of 2,700
- Date: 16th July 2015
- Summary: POZZALLO, SICILY, ITALY (JULY 16, 2015) (REUTERS) COASTGUARD SHIP DOCKED IN HARBOUR GANGWAY EXTENDED TO WHARF MIGRANTS ON SHIP RESCUE WORKERS ON DOCK VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS ON DECK POLICEMAN WATCHING MIGRANT WOMEN ON SHIP MIGRANTS ON SHIP HELICOPTER FLYING ABOVE EMERGENCY CREWS ATTENDING TO MIGRANTS MIGRANTS ON SHIP EMERGENCY CREWS ATTENDING TO MIGRANTS VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS ON
- Embargoed: 31st July 2015 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Italy
- Country: Italy
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA7B4LEH7CEUH9XEVNZLX8G8ANE
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Some of the 2700 migrants picked up in 13 boats near the coast of Libya on Wednesday (July 15) were being brought ashore at the southern Sicilian port of Pozzallo on Thursday (July 16), the Italian coast guard said.
The latest group seemed to be of Eritrean nationality, according to a Medicines sans Frontieres doctor on the scene, and included a large number of women and children.
"They come from Libya, according to our first brief interviews, from the town of Zuwara," said Chiara Montaldo, an MSF doctor, who said 369 had disembarked.
"Their health is not critical. We can see signs of detention in Libya, as often is the case, and a lot of skin disease and signs of bad hygiene from when they were living in Libya,'' she added.
The rescued migrants were intercepted between Libya and Sicily and were travelling in nine dinghies and four wooden fishing boats.
Five dinghies were rescued by the Bourbon Argos, a private ship managed by Medicines Sans Frontieres, to face up to the relentless stream of migrants making their way across the southern Mediterranean.
Other vessels were rescued by the Italian coast guard, the Italian navy and by the German navy ship Warra.
The number of migrants seeking protection in the European Union soared by 68 percent in the first five months of 2015 compared with the year-earlier period, the EU said on a week earlier on Wednesday (July 8).
The European Asylum Support Office (EASO) gave no figure for the number of arriving migrants in the January-May 2015 period.
But the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said earlier that more than 135,000 migrants had arrived in Europe by sea in the first half of 2015, mostly landing in Greece and Italy.
EASO said that the full-year 2014 figure was already a record with more than 660,000 migrants seeking asylum in the EU's 28 countries plus Switzerland and Norway.
Many asylum seekers pitch up on the southern shores of Europe after risking their lives in overloaded boats dispatched by human traffickers dispatched across the Mediterranean.
Migrants come mainly from African and Middle Eastern countries plagued by conflict, human rights abuses and poverty. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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