AKIPRESS.COM - About 4,800 migrants were plucked from boats off the coast of Libya over the weekend and 10 bodies were recovered, Italy’s coast guard and navy said, in what looked to be the biggest rescue operation of its kind this year, WP reports.
Two weeks after nearly 900 boat people drowned in the worst Mediterranean shipwreck in living memory, the flow of those desperate to reach European shores in search of a better life has accelerated as people smugglers take advantage of calmer seas.
Seven bodies were found on two large rubber boats packed with migrants, the Italian coast guard said, and rescuers plucked from the sea the corpses of three others who had jumped into the water when they saw a merchant ship approaching.
Authorities in Egypt said three people died when a migrant boat attempting to reach Greece sank off its coast. Thirty-one people were rescued.
About 10 Italian vessels, four private boats and a French ship acting on behalf of the European border control agency took part in the rescue off Libya, coordinated by Italy, the country that receives the largest number of Mediterranean migrants.
The official Libyan News Agency said Sunday that authorities in Libya detained 500 migrants in five boats off Tripoli and that 480 migrants — from Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea and Ethiopia — were caught on a farm near the central town of Jufra and 170 more were detained nearby.Those rescued in the Italian operation were being brought to Italian shores, some already arriving at Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, and others at Trapani, Sicily. More were to be brought ashore overnight and Monday.