ROME, April 11 (Reuters) – The Italian coastguard rescued
almost 500 migrants crammed into five small inflatable boats off
the Sicilian coast in the Mediterranean Sea after receiving
distress calls overnight, the coastguard said on Thursday.
Coastguard spokesman Marco di Milla said the migrants,
mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, included some pregnant women and
several people in need of hospital treatment.
“They were in inflatable boats of a maximum of 10 metres
long, which can carry about 10 people safely. Instead, these
boats were carrying up to 100 people,” di Milla told Reuters. He
said the boats had likely started their journey in the North
African state of Libya.
Most of the migrants were taken to Lampedusa, a tiny island
south of Sicily that receives thousands of immigrants each year.
Improved spring weather conditions have increased the
numbers trying to make the treacherous journey across the
Mediterranean, but thousands have died due to shipwrecks, harsh
conditions and a lack of food and water.
An estimated 1,500 migrants lost their lives in the
Mediterranean in 2011, many of them trying to escape the turmoil
caused by the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa, according
to Human Rights Watch. It estimated the death toll in 2012 at
more than 300.
(Reporting by Naomi O’Leary; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
