Italy rescues 3,700 boat migrants in one weekend, operations ongoing

Nearly 3,700 migrants were rescued from boats near the coast of Libya on Saturday and early Sunday and more rescue operations were expected during the day as people smugglers took advantage of calm seas, Italy’s coast guard said. All of those rescued were being brought back to Italian shores, a spokesman for the coast guard said, and some reached Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island, during the night. The nationalities of those rescued had not yet been determined, he said.

This year’s numbers speak for themselves.

Martin Xuereb, director of the Migrant Offshort Aid Station (MOAS)

Smugglers’ boats set out in a spell of warm, calm weather. In a French operation, 217 migrants in three rubber dinghies were rescued by a Marine patrol boat and two suspected smugglers were detained in the seas north of Libya, the Maritime Prefecture in Toulon said. A record 280,000 illegal border crossings were detected in the EU last year, according to Frontex, Europe’s border agency.

Europe