Italy rescues 3,300 migrants at sea, 17 dead

Coast Guard receives distress calls from 17 vessels on Mediterranean, saves thousands with help of German, Irish navies

By AFP 29 May 2015, 10:51 pm

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Migrants arrive at the Lampedusa island harbor early Sunday, May 3, 2015. Ships rescued 3,690 migrants in just one day from smugglers' boats on the Mediterranean Sea off the Libyan coast, the Italian Coast Guard said Sunday. The agency said 17 different rescue operations were carried out Saturday after smugglers took advantage of calm seas and warm weather to move the migrants out of Africa on motorized rubber dinghies and fishing boats. (photo credit: AP/Mauro Buccarello)

The Italian coastguard said it had coordinated the rescue of more than 3,300 migrants sailing across the Mediterranean Sea on Friday, but also found 17 corpses on several of the rickety boats.

Distress calls were made from 17 boats, and several other rescue operations were still underway in the evening.

The 17 bodies were found on three inflatable dinghies, from which more than 300 other migrants were rescued alive, the Italian navy said on Twitter.

The Italian navy’s press office, contacted by AFP, was not immediately able to say how the migrants died.

But the Italian authorities have in the past spoken of the harsh conditions faced by the migrants at sea, where they have to endure extreme weather changes and are at risk of hunger, thirst and violence on board.

Friday’s rescue operations were led by the Italian coastguard and included the help of Italian, German and Irish naval ships under the auspices of the EU’s Frontex border agency.

So far this year, some 1,770 migrants have perished on the hazardous journey to Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration, a 30-fold increase on the same period in 2014.

The huge jump in the number of people trying to reach European shores has been attributed to the worsening security situation in Libya — the staging post for most of the crossings — as well as milder weather.