ITALY: Migrants from Syria, Turkey and Iraq are intercepted on their way to Italy

Record ID: 348442

  • Title: ITALY: Migrants from Syria, Turkey and Iraq are intercepted on their way to Italy
  • Date: 26th March 2011
  • Summary: LAMPEDUSA, ITALY (MARCH 25, 2011) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS WALKING OVER HILLSIDE ON LAMPEDUSA ITALIAN NAVY SHIP BEING USED TO TRANSPORT MIGRANTS TO SICILY, THE SAN MARCO BEHIND HARBOUR MIGRANTS STANDING AT WATERSIDE LANDING CRAFT RETURNING FROM TRANSPORTING MIGRANTS TO SAN MARCO SHIP MIGRANTS ON DOCKSIDE VARIOUS OF LANDING CRAFT, USED TO TRANSPORT MIGRANTS TO SA
  • Embargoed: 10th April 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy, Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA9TX2BYZMCGSPB6D4U1NOOSOF9
  • Story Text: Migrants from Syria, Turkey and Iraq are intercepted on their way to Italy, a break from the normal pattern of arrivals fleeing unrest in north African countries.
    A sailing boat carrying 44 migrants from Syria, Turkey and Iraq was intercepted by the Italian finance and border police, the Guardia di Finanza, in the early hours of Friday (March 25) off the coast of Sicily.
    Among the migrants were 11 women, two of whom are pregnant, and seven children, the Guardia di Finanza said.
    The migrants were towed to port in the city of Syracuse in the dark of the night by the police vessel.
    While thousands of migrants from Tunisia have made the perilous journey to the southern Sicilian island of Lampedusa in the past months, this is one of the first times recently migrants from other countries have arrived in Sicilian waters.
    Meanwhile on Lampedusa itself on Friday, an Italian navy ship had returned to transport a second batch of migrants to the Sicilian mainland.
    A spokesman for the Lampedusa port authority said around 500 migrants were being moved on the ship, the San Marco.
    The some 15,000 illegal immigrants who have arrived at Lampedusa since the beginning of 2011 have overwhelmed the facilities at a holding centre on the island and the numbers have dwarfed the island's normal population of 5,000.
    The streets of the quiet port town, which lives on fishing and tourism, have been filled with hundreds of young North African men.
    Wrecked boats, used by migrants to make the crossing, are beached beside a main road.
    Italy, which joined a coalition conducting no-fly zone air operations over Libya, says it fears hundreds of thousands of refugees may flee fighting in that country.
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