BREAKING NEWS

Nearly 1,300 rescued migrants arrive in Sicily over weekend

By REUTERS

MARCH 5, 2017 19:39

CATANIA, Italy - Almost 1,300 migrants arrived in Sicily on rescue ships over the weekend after crossing the Mediterranean, while a 16-year-old boy died on one of the ships, Italy's Coast Guard said.

Italy has seen migrants arriving by boat at a record-setting pace so far this year, with far more people braving the crossing from North Africa this year than in the previous three years, Italian figures showed on Friday.

Another 500 migrants were heading to Sicily and expected to arrive in the next couple of days, after being picked up from flimsy boats off the coast of Libya.

Proactive Open Arms, which operated one of the rescue ships, also said on Twitter that five migrants had drowned before one of the rescues, but a Coast Guard spokesman could not confirm the deaths.

In Catania, on Sicily's east coast, the body of the 16-year-old boy was taken off the Siem Pilot, a Norwegian vessel operating on behalf of European Union border agency Frontex.

"Unfortunately one of the migrants ... died on the Siem Pilot on Friday morning as a result of an illness," the ship's commander, Jorgen Berg, told Reuters. The boy's illness was still unknown, but he had no visible wounds, Berg said. His nationality was not disclosed.

There had been 487 migrant deaths in the Mediterranean as of March 2, according to International Organization for Migration, higher than the 425 during the first two months of last year.

Boat migrant arrivals in Italy are up more than 57 percent on the same period last year, according to Italian Interior Ministry figures. About half a million have arrived in Italy since the start of 2014, with a record 181,000 arriving in 2016.

Six rockets hit Kiryat Shmona in North, no injuries reported

By SHAKED SADEH

04/16/2024 11:16 PM

Group of three jurors selected to serve on Trump criminal trial

By REUTERS

04/16/2024 10:24 PM

Judge says he 'won't tolerate' Trump speaking while jurors speak

By REUTERS

04/16/2024 09:47 PM

US says flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza not at desired level

By REUTERS

04/16/2024 08:52 PM