Over 2,500 migrants were due to
arrive in Italy between Friday and Saturday after being rescued
when their boats got into difficulty in the Sicily Channel.
The Bourbon Argos ship operated by medical aid organisation
Medici senza frontiere docked in the Sicilian regional capital
of Palermo early Friday morning carrying 592 migrants - 464 men,
119 women including one suffering from serious hypertension and
9 children, including unaccompanied minors and a four-month-old
baby probably born in Libya - mostly from Cameroon, Togo,
Senegal and Ivory Coast.
The latest rescues take to 1,298 the number of migrants
saved by MSF in 11 separate rescue operations in the last 48
hours, on top of the over 2,000 people rescued by the
international charity organisation since the end of April.
Also on Friday, the German auxiliary ship Fgs Frankfurt
was due to dock in the Sicilian port city of Messina at 4 pm
local time with 514 migrants on board.
On Saturday the Italian navy vessel Aviere carrying 750
migrants is expected in Augusta at 6 am and the Siem Pilot
carrying 652 migrants is due to reach Reggio Calabria on
mainland Italy during the course of the morning.
On Friday the migration 'hotspot' for identification and
sorting on Lampedusa contained 363 people, the one in Trapani
129 people and the one in Pozzallo 310 people.
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