Italy navy ferries migrants to safety

Italy’s coast guard and navy joined forces with tugs and other commercial vessels to rescue migrants in at least 16 boats yesterday, saving hundreds and recovering 10 bodies as smugglers took advantage of calm seas to send packed vessels across the Mediterranean.

The Italian coast guard said the bodies were found in three separate rescue operations off Libya’s coast. The coast guard was aided by a tug and a merchant ship in at least some of the rescue efforts. In one of those rescues, a cargo ship found three migrants dead and 105 survivors on a dinghy in the waters north of Tripoli, Libya.

In another dramatic rescue, migrants aboard a motorised rubber dinghy that was deflating were spotted by an Italian navy helicopter.