The government of Italy on Tuesday declared a six-month national state of emergency to help it cope with a surge in migrants arriving on its coast.
This comes after Italy’s coastguard rescued more than 1,200 migrants from two stricken vessels on Monday night, adding to 2,000 others they had saved over the weekend. The migrants had embarked on the dangerous and illegal voyage across the Mediterranean Sea, hoping to reach Europe from North Africa.
The coastguard said they received distress calls from two fishing boats that were overcrowded and facing huge swells in the open sea. One of the boats had also run out of fuel and was drifting without a captain, who had apparently abandoned ship. The coastguard dispatched several vessels and helicopters to locate and assist the migrants, who were in desperate need of medical attention.
Among the rescued were a child, a pregnant woman, and a person with a physical disability. They were taken to Sicily’s south coast, where they will be processed and given humanitarian aid. The coastguard said they did not know the nationalities or origins of the migrants, but some of them had left from the Libyan port of Tobruk.
Sea-Watch, a nongovernmental group that works with migrants, said it had witnessed one of the fishing boats in distress on Sunday and had alerted the authorities. However, it said other ships that wanted to help had been ordered not to rescue the migrants and instead only supply them with fuel.
Alarm Phone, another nonprofit that operates a hotline for migrants in distress at sea, said it had received several calls from the migrants on board one of the vessels on Monday. It said the migrants were in panic and asked for immediate rescue.
Italy has seen more than 26,000 arrivals so far this year.
For more, see MSN News.