Italian navy rescues hundreds more migrants

(ANSA) - Ragusa, April 21 - More than 320 migrants were rescued by Italian Navy vessels Monday from the seas south of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, raising the total number saved over the Easter long weekend to more than 1,100 people.
    The latest arrivals, including about 70 women and children, were spotted by a Navy helicopter patrolling the Channel of Sicily and were taken to the port of Augusta in the province of Siracusa, located on the eastern coast of Sicily.
    Earlier on the weekend, more than 800 migrants, many fleeing north Africa, were rescued from two boats south of Lampedusa. All were saved by Italian ships through the Mare Nostrum surveillance and rescue program established after the deaths of some 400 people in two migrant-boat disasters near Lampedusa in October 2013.
    Last week, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that to date this year, more than 20,500 migrants had already landed on Italy's coasts - an enormous increase over the 2,500 reported during the same period in 2013.
    Speaking before a committee on the country's borders, Alfano stressed that the number of incoming migrants was on pace "to reach the record levels of 2011, when more than 62,000 people entered".
    Meanwhile on Monday, authorities said that more than 300 migrants fled from an emergency holding centre for migrants near Ragusa which, like other centres on Sicily, have been overcrowded by a steady stream of illegal arrivals to Europe by sea.