EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SICILY BODIES Italian navy delivers hundreds of migrants, including 17 bodies, to port in Sicily

Record ID: 149637

  • Title: EUROPE-MIGRANTS/SICILY BODIES Italian navy delivers hundreds of migrants, including 17 bodies, to port in Sicily
  • Date: 31st May 2015
  • Summary: AUGUSTA, SICILY, ITALY (MAY 31, 2015) (REUTERS) EMERGENCY WORKERS WALKING ON WHARF / NAVAL SHIP MOVING TOWARDS PORT NAVAL SHIP ARRIVING IN PORT NAVAL OFFICERS PREPARING ROPES ON DECK SHIP DOCKING PORT WORKER PULLING ROPE ON WHARF HUNDREDS OF MIGRANTS SITTING ON DECK OF SHIP NAVAL OFFICERS AND MIGRANTS ON DECK OF SHIP 'FENICE' ON SIDE OF SHIP / NAVAL OFFICERS ON DECK VARIOU
  • Embargoed: 15th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVACSHV2NTDUWHJZ0Z03W0J8XHHY
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: More than 4,200 migrants who were rescued from boats in the Mediterranean continued to arrive in Italian ports on Sunday (May 31), with the latest boatload coming in to the eastern Sicilian port of Augusta.
    Italian navy corvette Fenice brought 454 rescued migrants and also 17 bodies of migrants who were recovered from one of the boats off the Libyan coast on Friday (May 29). Details of the nationalities of the victims and how they died have not yet been released, although Italian media say that they did not drown but were more likely trampled in the rush to secure places on the overcrowded boats.
    In some of the most intense Mediterranean migrant traffic of the year, a total of 4,243 people were saved from fishing boats and rubber dinghies in 22 operations involving ships from nations including Italy, Ireland, Germany, Belgium and Britain.
    Migrants escaping war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East this year have been pouring into Italy, which has been bearing the brunt of Mediterranean rescue operations. Most depart from the coast of Libya, which has descended into anarchy since Western powers backed a 2011 revolt that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.
    Calm seas are increasingly favouring departures as warm spring weather sets in.
    Last month around 800 migrants drowned off Libya in the Mediterranean's most deadly shipwreck in living memory when their 20-metre long fishing boat capsized and sank.
    That spurred the European Union to agree on a naval mission to target gangs smuggling migrants from Libya, but a broader plan to deal with the influx is in doubt due to a dispute over national quotas for housing asylum seekers.
    The EU plan to disperse 40,000 migrants from Italy and Greece to other countries met with resistance this week, with Britain saying it would not participate and some eastern countries calling for a voluntary scheme.
    Around 35,500 migrants arrived in Italy from the beginning of the year up to the first week of May, the UN refugee agency estimated, a number which has swelled considerably since. About 1,800 are either dead or missing.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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