A vessel carrying 600 Eritrean
refugees including women and children has launched an SOS from
somewhere in the Channel of Sicily, Father Mussie Zerai of the
Habesha agency for African refugees and asylum seekers said
Friday.
The Eritrean priest, who is a Nobel peace prize candidate,
spoke with the refugees via satellite phone.
The vessel left from Libya at dawn, said Zerai, himself a
former refugee who expatriated to Italy in 1992.
Some 1,500 refugees have left or are about to leave from
Libya on other boats, according to data from Habesha.
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