Italy rushes to save 1,000 migrants

Italy’s coastguard went to the rescue of at least 1,000 migrants in difficulty in the sea between Europe and north Africa yesterday, the third operation of its kind in as many days.

The coastguard said it had plucked more than 130 people from two rubber boats about 180km south of the island of Lampedusa so far, and was working to save eight more vessels.

“We are certainly at more than 1,000 migrants involved in Sunday’s rescue operation,” a spokesman for the coastguard in Rome told Reuters.