Italian authorities stated that over 1000 immigrants arrived in Italy within the last few hours yesterday.
It was gathered that over 600 people attempting to cross the Mediterranean on board a drifting fishing vessel were rescued on Saturday by a merchant vessel and coastguards off Calabria, at the southern tip of Italy.
It was reported that five bodies of immigrants who died in undetermined circumstances were also recovered.
On the island of Lampedusa, some 522 people from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, among others, arrived from the late hours of Saturday in 15 different boats from Tunisia and Libya.
OceanViking, an NGO SOS Mediterranean, revealed that it had recovered 87 people, including 57 unaccompanied minors, who were crammed onto “an overcrowded inflatable boat in distress in international waters off Libya”.
The Interior Ministry of Italy stated that between 1 January and 22 July, 34,000 people arrived in Italy by sea compared with 25,500 during the same period in 2021 and 10,900 in 2020.
