Italian Navy Rescues 1,000 Migrants

Jan. 3, 2014 12:20 p.m. ET

Migrants from North Africa arriving in the southern Italian island of Lampedusa in a March 7, 2011, file photo. Reuters

ROME—Italian authorities said Friday they have rescued more than 1,000 migrants attempting to reach the country’s shores over the past 48 hours, highlighting the continued pressure on Italy and the European Union to find a solution to the influx of people who risk their lives to get to Europe each year.
The two-day total is unusually large because the boat journeys from Africa to Italy usually fall off in the winter months, when the trip is far more dangerous, indicating the desperation of those attempting the perilous crossings.
The migrant crisis shows no signs of letting up, and comes a few months after one of the worst tragedies to hit the Mediterranean when at least 367 Africans drowned off the Italian island of Lampedusa. Nearly 200,000 migrants have arrived there since 2001.
The Italian navy said it rescued 823 migrants on Thursday, including women and children and who weremainly from Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Tunisia, after authorities in helicopters spotted four overcrowded boats struggling to stay afloat.
The navy said it had saved 233 migrants on Wednesday, mainly from Eritrea, Somalia and Nigeria, off a boat just south of the island of Sicily.
It didn’t say where the boats had come from.
Just before Christmas, EU leaders looked at beefing up patrols in the Mediterranean and revisited the idea of allowing refugees to apply for asylum from abroad in a fresh bid to tackle the problem. The EU will return to the issue of asylum and migration in June.
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso visited Lampedusa in October days after the tragedy there and was visibly moved after seeing lines of coffins. He was also heckled by islanders demanding more EU involvement in policing their shores and aid to help the refugees.
Italy—together with Greece and Malta—is among the main entry points for migrants trying to get to Europe in the hope of a better life.
Rome has asked for a stronger EU response as it feels it is being left to cope mostly on its own, although the majority of migrants who reach Italy then try to leave for wealthier Northern European countries, where work opportunities are better.
The emergence of lawlessness in Libya after the fall of Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, brutal army-drafting practices in Eritrea, civil strife in Somalia and Syria’s civil war are pushing even more refugees toward Europe.
The number of migrants making these journeys has tripled between 2012 and 2013, says EU border agency Frontex. Human-rights groups estimate as many as 10% of all migrant-carrying boats departing from Libya are lost at sea.
In October, more than 400 migrants died in two shipwrecks, a couple of weeks apart.
As a result, the Italian government organized its military and police forces under the “Mare Nostrum” operation. The most recent rescues were part of this coordinated response.
Write to Liam Moloney at liam.moloney@wsj.com

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