Italian navy and coast guard vessels rescued more than 700 migrants, including dozens of women and children, in waters between Sicily, Italy and North Africa overnight, rescue authorities reported on Friday.
Several hundred of the rescued migrants were brought to an overcrowded immigrant reception center on the southern island of Lampedusa, which lies 290 km off the coast of Africa, is a key destination for migrant vessels bound for Europe.Recently, Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta has demanded European Union leaders who met in Brussels to increase aid to Mediterranean countries including Italy, Greece and Malta that carry the burden of the crisis.
Italy has increased patrols in the seas between Libya, Tunisia and Italy after about 360 mainly Eritrean migrants suffocated in water in early October when their boat capsized off Lampedusa.
A week later, another boat sank a week later, leaving an estimated 200 people missing.
Most of the migrants crossing of the Mediterranean sea, often on rickety and ill-equipped boats, are fleeing civil war and unrest in Syria, Egypt and other Arab and African countries.
According to the United Nations estimations, more than 32,000 migrants have made the journey to southern Italy by boat in 2013.
Reuters
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