10 traffickers and 15 migrants arrested as boats pour into Italy

Italian Police in the Sicilian port city of Augusta have arrested 10 alleged traffickers who were amongst hundreds of migrants rescued at sea. Fifteen migrants are also being held for allegedly throwing others overboard following a shipwreck in the Mediterranean. The Italian coast guard has said migrants have been arriving at an unprecedented rate since Friday, with 10,000 pulled from rickety vessels at sea and another 400 people drowned off Libya. Police say the African Muslim migrants were held after witnesses said they had thrown 12 Christian passengers into the sea after a brawl on a boat heading to Italy.

Ninety percent of the cost of the patrol and sea rescue operations are falling on our shoulders, and we have not had an adequate response from the EU.

Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni

A further 41 migrants are feared drowned in a separate Mediterranean shipwreck, based on survivor accounts. Four migrants picked up by the Italian Navy said their inflatable vessel sank not long after leaving the coast of Libya for Europe with 45 people on board. Italy has pleaded for help from the other nations of the European Union to deal with the situation with many of the migrants, unlike Mr Jaiteh, not planning to stay in the country but move elsewhere across the continent. Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni said: “90% of the cost of the patrol and sea rescue operations are falling on our shoulders, and we have not had an adequate response from the EU.”

We don’t have months and months (to sort this out). The double risk of an advance of the Islamic State group in Libya and the waves of migrants means we are in a race against the clock.

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni

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