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Italian Coast Guard Saves 1,200 Migrants Adrift at Sea. PHOTO/Reuters
MILAN – Coast guard Italia is carrying out an operation to rescue two ships carrying a total of 1,200 people, Monday (10/4/2023). There have also been reports of an increase in numbers migrant that crosses the Mediterranean from Africa North over the weekend.
As reported by Reuters, one of the boats carrying 400 people and being in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy, was previously seen in Maltese waters.
Earlier on Monday, German NGO Sea-Watch International, which has located the fishing boat with one of its planes, said a merchant vessel in the area had supplied fuel and water to the ship in distress, but Maltese authorities had ordered it to no save.
Early Sunday, the Alarm Phone support service said the ship, which departed from Tobruk in Libya, drifted adrift and sank. Maltese authorities did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Another rescue operation by the Italian coast guard on Monday was assisting a fishing boat carrying 800 people located more than 120 miles southeast of Syracuse, in Sicily. It said in a statement the operation was complicated by the number of people on board.
A coastguard spokesman said it would take hours to complete the two ongoing operations due to difficult conditions, including the long distance from the beach.
“Before these two operations, the Italian coast guard had rescued around 2,000 migrants since Friday,” he said.
(esn)
