Italy takes in 6,000 migrants in 3 days

Italy’s coastguard and navy have rescued nearly 6,000 migrants since Friday as good weather encourages the desperate to set out on smugglers’ vessels.

Italy’s coastguard helped save 144 migrants yesterday from a capsized boat in the waters off Libya and spotted nine bodies. It was the most dramatic of numerous rescue operations that brought thousands to safety in recent days.

The overturned boat was spotted 130km north of Libya, coastguard Cmdr Filippo Marini said.

Rescuers were not yet able to determine from survivors whether some other migrants might be missing, he said. Nationalities of the migrants were not immediately made known.

An air-and-sea search was in progress near the capsizing boat.

Marini said many of the rescue operations were outside the area of Operation Triton, the EU patrol mission for surveillance and eventual assistance for the migrants. Even outside that zone, other vessels, including merchant ships, often come to the rescue.

Good weather is playing a role in the current surge in sea voyages. Mild temperatures and skies encourage migrant crossings, because they provide a greater chance of survival on the rickety fishing boats or rubber dinghies that set sail from Libyan shores.

In a three-day period starting Friday, 5,629 migrants were rescued, the coastguard said.

Smugglers often jump aboard speed boats as the vessels near the Italian coast. Left to fend for themselves, the migrants send out a distress signal, mobilising the rescue operation.

“All of the calls for help came to the coast guard in Rome via satellite calls,” from the boats in distress, said Marini.

The coastguard’s Rome headquarters has been co- ordinating the rescue operations. “Even as we speak, there are 14 rescue operations ongoing,” the coastguard official said.

Italy’s navy and frontier police boats joined the coast guard vessels in the rescue missions. Merchant vessels also pitched in, including the Italian cargo ship Bottiglieri, he said. An Operation Triton vessel was also involved in rescue operations, he said.

Italy has pressed the EU to do more to patrol and rescue in the southern Mediterranean, especially since most of the migrants and asylum-seekers want to go to other EU countries where relatives or jobs await them.

Last year, 170,000 migrants arrived on Italian shores, thanks to rescue operations.

Around 3,500 are estimated to have drowned last year.

At least 480 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean during the first three months of this year, compared with fewer than 50 fatalities during the same period last year, the International Organisation for Migration said.