The Italian coast guard, with the help of a Norwegian, Irish and a Doctors without Borders ship, worked around the clock on Saturday to save the lives of more than 4,400 people crammed into 22 rickety boats trying to make it to Italy. It also reports that 2,365 migrants died at sea – up from 1,779 in the same period of 2014. But several thousand others – many of them Syrian refugees – tore through muddy fields to Macedonian territory after days spent in the open without access to shelter, food or water.
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“Nearly 110,000 migrants were tracked entering the EU in July by irregular means, official data showed on Tuesday, setting a record as the influx continues, notably of Syrians reaching Greek islands from Turkey”.
Some in the crowd said they had tried to cross the 152-mile border at other points, away from the main crossing of Gevgelija where refugees normally converge after taking trains and buses north through Greece.
Operations are continuing and it is still unclear where the people will be taken, a spokesman said.
Tripoli. More than 2,000 migrants and refugees have been rescued from boats off the coast of Libya in one of the biggest single-day operations mounted, Italy’s coastguards have said, as cited by BBC.Distress calls came from more than 20 vessels, AFP reported.
Two navy patrol ships, the Cigala Fulgosi and the Vega, picked up respective totals of 507 and 432 migrants from two boats in danger of sinking just off Libya while coastguard vessels had safely boarded just under 300 people from three different inflatable dinghies.
They have called on European governments to shoulder more of the burden of absorbing the wave of asylum seekers and to help create safer routes for them to reach Europe.
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Over 100, 000 migrants mainly from Africa and restive countries in the Middle East and Asia have been rescued from rickety boats on the Mediterranean in the course of this year.
