Rescuers plucked more than a thousand migrants from over-crowded boats near Libya, Italy’s coast guard said on Thursday, while describing it as the highest number saved in a single day in three weeks.
British, Irish, Slovenian and German navy ships took part in rescue mission, along with the Italian coast guard and a ship operating under the auspices of EU border agency, Frontex.
The flow of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats from Libya towards Italy’s southern tip, had been abating with deteriorating weather conditions and as more people chose alternative routes into Europe.
According to data from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 140,000 have reached Italy since January in boats from Africa, out of a total of about 700,000 who have come to Europe by sea, mostly through Greece.
Italy and Greece have struggled to cope with arrivals as civil war in Syria and deprivation and human rights abuses in Africa, has driven the biggest wave of migration towards Europe since World War two.
(NAN)
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