ITALY: One dead, several injured as Italy rescues over 4,000 migrants at sea in 72 hours

Record ID: 348715

  • Title: ITALY: One dead, several injured as Italy rescues over 4,000 migrants at sea in 72 hours
  • Date: 21st March 2014
  • Summary: AUGUSTA, SICILY, ITALY (MARCH 21, 2014) (REUTERS) ITALIAN NAVY SHIP 'SAN GIUSTO' LOADED WITH OVER 1,000 RESCUED MIGRANTS APPROACHING HARBOUR AMBULANCES GATHERING ON DOCK SIDE NAVY PERSONNEL ON DOCK SIDE WITH 'SAN GIUSTO' SHIP ARRIVING IN THE BACKGROUND VARIOUS OF POLICEMEN WALKING TOWARDS SHIP SAILORS WATCHING FROM SHIP VARIOUS OF WOUNDED MAN WRAPPED IN THERMAL SHEET BEING
  • Embargoed: 5th April 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Italy
  • Country: Italy
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA6HLW3SXSMC61EK7WPHK26NY22
  • Story Text: Italy's navy rescued more than 1,500 migrants from overcrowded rafts in the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily on Friday (March 21).
    The amphibious assault ship San Giusto also picked up one dead and rescued two in a critical condition, Captain Mario Mattesi told Reuters as the ship arrived in the port of Augusta, near Syracuse.
    ''In the third rescue operation during the night, unfortunately, transferring three migrants in critical conditions, one of them was found already dead while two were in very serious conditions. One of them was revived on the 'San Giusto' ship'' Mattesi said.
    ''The three of them had problems connected to carbon dioxide poisoning and serious gasoline burns, all caused by the petrol in their dinghy,'' Mattesi added.
    Two suspected smugglers were taken into police custody when the San Giusto and another navy ship docked, with them carrying more than 1,500 migrants between them.
    More than 4,000 migrants have been rescued from this stretch of sea in the past four days, and several other rescue operations are ongoing, an Italian navy spokeswoman said on Friday.
    Captain Mattesi said the Mare Nostrum taskforce has been reinforced, with rescue operations resuming at a great pace.

    "We now have eight ships from the Italian navy involved and operating non-stop in the relevant stretch of sea," he said.
    Italy is a major gateway into Europe for migrants, and sea arrivals more than tripled in 2013 from the previous year, fuelled by Syria's civil war and strife in the Horn of Africa.
    This week's warm spring weather brought calm seas and an onslaught of new arrivals.
    Most of the migrants pay more than $1,000 to criminal gangs in the increasingly chaotic Libya to make the crossing to Italy - and the European Union - that killed hundreds last year.
    In October, 366 Eritreans drowned in a shipwreck near the shore of the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is located about halfway between Sicily and Tunisia.
    More than 200, mostly Syrians, died in another shipwreck a week later.
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