Early Saturday morning (March 11), a rusty fishing boat packed with some 500 migrants was towed into the port of Crotone in southern Italian following a rescue operation by the Italian coast guard of three boats, one south of the Calabrian city of Crotone and two further south off Roccella Ionica.
The coast guard on Friday said it responded to three boats carrying more than 1,300 migrants “in danger” off Italy’s southern coast.
The 487 migrants on board the first boat were safely brought to the port of Crotone at about 2 am on Saturday morning, the coast guard said. Another 500 migrants were rescued in the second operation; they were brought to the port of Reggio Calabria, according to news agency ANSA.
Two coastguard patrol vessels rescued a third boat carrying 379 people, transferring the migrants to a Navy ship headed to the Sicilian port of Augusta, it said.
Italy’s defence ministry said it had begun to air transfers of migrants away from the crowded migrant center on the island of Lampedusa, which it said was now over capacity, news agency AFP reports.
Three boats carrying more than 1300 migrants arrived Italy’s southern coast on Saturday morning (March 11). 487 arrived port of Crotone, 500 port of Reggio Calabria & 379 Sicilian port of Augusta. #Oscars2023, |Nigerians| Abiola | The CBN |Italy| #Jakpa pic.twitter.com/rimmruDux7
— Obi-West Utchaychukwu 🇳🇬🇫🇮 (@west_obi) March 14, 2023
Source & Photos: AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro
