More than 4,000 migrants were saved
in some 40 rescue operations in the Sicilian Channel Thursday,
the Italian Coast Guard said.
The body of a woman was found on one of the dinghies.
The Italian Navy rescued 1,800 people, including women and
children, off 31 different inflatables.
The remaining asylum seekers were rescued by EUNAVFOR MED
ships, Italy's Coast Guard, and four vessels manned by
humanitarian groups: the Bourbon Argos chartered by Doctors
Without Borders, the Sea Watch 2 belonging to the NGO of the
same name founded by three German business partners to rescue
asylum seekers at sea, the Topaz Responder, a ship run by the
Malta-based humanitarian group Migrant Offshore Aid Station
(MOAS), and the Acquarius, manned by SOS Mediterranée.
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