About 4,000 migrants were rescued from the sea Thursday as the Italian coast guard coordinated and concluded almost two dozen operations, said Cmdr.
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A handout picture released by the European Union Naval Force – Mediterranean (Eunavformed) on 26 May 2016 shows people in stress on their overturned boat in Canal of Sicily off the Libyan coast, 25 May 2016.
There are no reports of any deaths so far in the Thursday incident, a spokesperson for the Italian coast guard said.
Today’s news come just one day after another boat carrying hundreds of migrants capsized off the Libyan coast, killing at least five people.
A cargo ship, tug boats as well as vessels run by volunteer groups helped in the multiple rescue operations.
Around 900 migrants have been rescued in seven different operations on Thursday, bringing the total number of migrants who have been rescued since Monday to more than 7,000. The country’s migrant shelters are under pressure to house 115,507 migrants, about twice as many as two years ago.
In other rescues, a Libyan navy spokesman said a total of 766 migrants were rescued by the Libyan coastguard on yesterday.
Astoundingly, the vast majority of the passengers survived and were picked up by navy boats.
The overwhelming majority of those arriving in Italy so far this year have been from sub-Saharan Africa. A statement from the Italian navy Wednesday says the Bettica patrol ship was responding to a migrant ship in distress when it flipped, sending migrants into the sea.
The Italian navy frigate Bergamini deployed a helicopter, and several rubber motorboats were used in the rescue operations.
Horrific scenes of people clinging desperately to the upturned boat or dropping into the sea were caught on camera. Only five bodies were recovered and 562 were saved.
“The people below can’t see nothing, can’t see nothing, but when they heard, they started coming up.They wanted to be saved, too”.
Nicastro said 88 people had been rescued from the wooden boat.
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He said two other capsized boats were found empty in waters between the two cities and only four bodies were retrieved, with the rest of those aboard feared dead.
