The Italian Coast Guard has rescued almost 700 migrants from the Mediterranean Sea. Five bodies were also found on a fishing boat on Saturday, the Coast Guard said on Sunday. The boat had drifted more than 200 kilometers off the Calabrian coast, a merchant ship and several ships belonging to the Italian authorities had rescued a total of 674 people, some of them directly from the water. They came to Sicilian and Calabrian ports.
Late on Saturday evening, 522 people on 15 boats from Tunisia and Libya also reached the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa. According to aid organizations, hundreds of other people rescued from distress at sea are waiting to go ashore. According to its own statements, the Berlin-based non-governmental organization (NGO) Sea-Watch saved over 400 people in four missions on Saturday, including a heavily pregnant woman and several children.
According to the Interior Ministry in Rome, 34,000 migrants have crossed the Mediterranean to Italy since the beginning of the year. In the previous year there were 25,500 people, in 2020 10,900. According to Italian media, the initial reception center on Lampedusa, which is designed for a maximum of 300 people, is dramatically overcrowded. According to the Ansa news agency, there are 1,200 people in it.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the Mediterranean Sea is the most dangerous refugee route in the world. According to IOM estimates, 990 people have died or disappeared on the crossing since the beginning of the year.
