Ships off Libya rescue 1,035 migrants; 10 die

Migrants wait to disembark Wednesday in Porto Empedocle in southern Italy’s Sicily after their rescue by the Italian coast guard.
Migrants wait to disembark Wednesday in Porto Empedocle in southern Italy’s Sicily after their rescue by the Italian coast guard.

ROME -- A flotilla of ships north of Libya saved more than 1,000 migrants and refugees, while 10 migrants died in the southern Mediterranean, Italian officials said Wednesday.

Rescue vessels, including from Italy's coast guard and navy, and three cargo ships saved 941 people in seven operations that began Tuesday, Italy's coast guard said. On Wednesday, the coast guard and two cargo ships rescued 94 migrants whose motorized dinghy was in distress 40 miles north of Libya, the coast guard said.

Survivors were ferried to southern Italian ports. The migrants rescued Tuesday had been aboard five motorized dinghies and two larger vessels. One of the larger boats capsized, and 10 bodies were found in the sea.

Thousands of migrants fleeing conflicts or poverty have been reaching Italy on smugglers' boats setting sail from Libya.

So far this year, Italy has reported a sharp uptick in migrants and asylum-seekers rescued at sea by the coast guard, navy and other vessels. Italy rescued about 170,000 migrants last year.

The Interior Ministry said 7,882 migrants arrived on Italian coasts in the first two months of this year, compared with 5,506 in that period in 2014.

The coast guard said the migrants saved this week were Syrians, Palestinians, Libyans, Tunisians and people from sub-Saharan Africa.

More than 30 children were among those rescued. One of the 50 pregnant women aboard was evacuated for medical treatment.

A tug deployed at offshore oil platforms raised one of the first alarms and then joined in the rescue operations about 50 miles north of Libya, the coast guard said.

For years, Italy has been appealing to the European Union to help with ships, aircraft or funding. It points out that most of those rescued intend to reach relatives or find jobs in other European countries.

This year, an EU patrol mission known as Triton replaced Italy's Mare Nostrum air and sea mission that had saved tens of thousands of people. Triton patrols only EU national waters, while the Italians had carried out rescues off Libya's coast, where many of the overcrowded vessels founder.

Italy says it won't turn its back on those in danger.

"Often the SOS call [arrives] when the migrants' boats are outside the Italian rescue zone, 50 or 60 miles from the Libyan coast," coast guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said.

International law obliges Italy to alert the coastal country with jurisdiction, he said, but calling on Libyan authorities would yield little help because of the country's chaotic security situation.

"If there is no reaction or intervention for this country, we must rescue these people," Marini said.

The EU's mission is fodder for rightist Italian politicians, including Matteo Salvini, the leader of the anti-immigrant, anti-Europe Northern League party.

"Ten more dead and 900 clandestine migrants ready to disembark," Salvini said Wednesday. "In Rome and in Brussels, there are full pockets and hands stained with blood."

The migrants' traffickers reportedly are getting even more ruthless.

An Italian child-protection advocate, Carlotta Bellini of Save the Children, said migrants recently have reported that armed traffickers demanded they jump in the boat to depart even if weather was bad.

Government lawmakers also demanded that the EU do more. Khalid Chaouki, from Premier Matteo Renzi's Democratic Party, lamented "this unexplainable European indifference."

In Brussels, Migration Commission member Dimitris Avramopoulos said, "Now more than ever we need a comprehensive and long-term strategy." He spoke after a commission debate on the EU's migration policy.

Italian officials have expressed concern that militants could mingle among migrants from Libya, where the Islamic State has gained a foothold.

Information for this article was contributed by Lorne Cook, Paolo Santalucia and Trisha Thomas of The Associated Press.

A Section on 03/05/2015

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