1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
Middle EastUS election Ukraine

Italy launches migrant rescue bid in Med.

February 15, 2015

The Italian coast guard has said it is trying to rescue more than 600 migrants in difficulty near the Libyan coast. The operation comes after more than 300 migrants died last week attempting to cross to Europe.

https://p.dw.com/p/1EcA6
Migrants wait to disembark from an Italian Coast Guard ship after being rescued in Porto Empedocle, Sicily, southern Italy, Saturday, Feb. 14, 2015. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Save the Children, Amnesty International and other aid groups blasted the new EU-backed rescue patrol as insufficient for the task at hand. The European Union took over Mediterranean patrols after Italy phased out its robust Mare Nostrum operation in November. Mare Nostrum (Our Seas) had been launched in 2013 after 360 migrants drowned off the coast of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa. But the EU's Triton mission only operates a few miles off Europe's coast ¿ its job is to patrol Europe's borders ¿ whereas Mare Nostrum patrols took Italian rescue ships up close to Libya's coast. (AP Photo/Francesco Malavolta)
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo

The Italian coast guard said on Sunday it had launched a rescue operation to save more than 600 migrants who sent emergency calls for help after getting into difficulty between the Italian island of Lampedusa and the coast of Libya.

It said several merchant ships were helping with the operation, adding that the rescue vessels had located six boats drifting about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the Libyan coast. Around 150 migrants on two vessels had already been saved, officials told Italy's AGI news agency.

A coast guard source said as many as 1,300 migrants in 10 boats could be in need of rescue.

The operation is the second of its kind in recent days, after some 700 migrants on board six dinghies were rescued off the Libyan coast on Friday.

Last week, more than 300 died in the Mediterranean while trying to cross to Europe from North Africa, reigniting criticism of Italy's decision last year to close its full-scale search and rescue mission, Mare Nostrum. The mission has been replaced by a European Union operation called Triton, which has fewer ships and patrols a smaller area.

Last year, more than 3,200 people died while trying to reach Italy by boat from North Africa, according to United Nations estimates.

tj/cmk (Reuters, AFP)