- Title: Three babies born at sea as 10,000 migrants rescued in Mediterranean
- Date: 5th October 2016
- Summary: MESSINA, ITALY (OCTOBER 5, 2016) (REUTERS) PRIVATE RESCUE SHIP GOLFO AZZURRO DOCKED MIGRANTS WEARING LIFE-VESTS ON DECK MIGRANT ON STRETCHER AMBULANCE AND SHIP (SOUNDBITE) (English) HEAD OF MISSION FOR NGO 'BOAT REFUGEE FOUNDATION', MATTEO ZEVI, SAYING: ''We are here in Messina today doing a disembarkation of some 670 migrants and refugees who were rescued from sinking boats off the coast of Libya two days ago, on the 3rd of October. We rescued about 500 onto our own ship and then took the others in transfer from other NGO ships in the area. We work closely with other NGOs and with the Italian Navy and Coastguard. We are a volunteer crew, so we're out there doing what we can. In this particular group we had about 10 pregnant women and actually a child of four-days old, which is always a joy to have onboard - as sad as it can be - and, the sadness of the trip, there were seven who did not make it, floating in a rubber boat and we had to leave them and sea. Hopefully the corpses were collected by the Italian Coastguard later in the day.'' VARIOUS OF CHILDREN AND NGO WORKERS ON DOCK VARIOUS OF MIGRANTS ON SHIP MIGRANTS DISEMBARKING SHIP SHIP/AMBULANCE AT DOCKSIDE
- Embargoed: 20th October 2016 13:04
- Keywords: migrants rescue Mediterranean sea babies boats Libya
- Location: AT SEA, AND MESSINA, ITALY
- City: AT SEA, AND MESSINA, ITALY
- Country: Italy
- Topics: Asylum/Immigration/Refugees,Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00252QAHC7
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS IMAGES ORIGINALLY SHOT IN PORTRAIT
More than 4,650 migrants were rescued on Tuesday (October 4) off the Libyan coast and 28 bodies recovered, bringing the total number of people rescued in the last 48 hours to nearly 11,000, Italy's coast guard said on Wednesday (October 5).
More than 20 people were reported to have suffocated in the hold of one overloaded fishing boat.
Italian officials said three women saved on Monday had given birth over the past 24 hours on a coast guard vessel that was bringing some 1,000 refugees to Sicily. The women and their three children were all reported to be in good health.
The coast guard said the migrants on Tuesday were rescued from 33 boats, including 27 rubber dinghies and one wooden boat that was believed to have been carrying around 1,000 people.
A photographer working for Agence France Press, who was aboard a ship chartered by a Spanish NGO to help with the rescue missions, was quoted as saying that he had counted 22 bodies on that boat, with other corpses still in the hold. Italian coast guard said around 22 people had died on the boat.
As one private rescue vessel 'Golfo Azzurro' docked in Messina on Wednesday, Matteo Zevi from the NGO Boat Refugee Foundation told Reuters they had carried around 670 people rescued from sinking crafts on Monday.
The coast guard said new rescue operations were underway on Wednesday, but far fewer than on the previous two days.
The latest surge in new arrivals means at least 142,000 migrants have reached Italy since the start of the year and around 3,100 have died making the perilous trip. An estimated 154,000 came to Italy in 2015 and 2,892 died.
The vast majority of refugees come from Africa, including Nigeria, Eritrea, Guinea, Gambia, Sudan, Ivory Coast and Somalia. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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