A group of 43 migrants and refugees
arrived on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa early Sunday after
being rescued by Italian Coast Guard in the Italian search and
rescue (SAR) zone.
The group, from Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali, and including 19
women and 2 minors, had embarked in Sfax, Tunisia, on Friday
evening.
On Saturday a total of 1,387 people arrived in Lampedusa in 37
separate landings and on Friday 1.778 people arrived in 43
landings. The vast majority had departed from Tunisia.
Saturday's arrivals included the 97 survivors of the two
shipwrecks that occurred in the Maltese SAR zone earlier in the
day.
Rescuers also recovered eight bodies, which were also
disembarked.
On Saturday night, a Finance Police patrol boat transferred 128
people from Lampedusa to Pozzallo on mainland Sicily, and a
further 180 are scheduled to be transferred by regular ferry to
Porto Empedocle late Sunday morning.
In addition, the Coast Guard vessel Diciotti is expected to
transfer around 600 people on Sunday afternoon.
Early Sunday morning there were 2.494 in the Lampedusa hotspot,
against an official capacity of less than 400.
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