ROME: Rescuers pulled 700 boat migrants to safety in the Mediterranean and found 23 bodies during one operation on Friday, an Italian coast guard spokesman said, the second loss of multiple lives recorded in the area so far this week.
After around three years of mass arrivals, the number of migrants reaching Italy has fallen sharply since July, when Rome struck a deal with Libya to block what had become a busy route for people smugglers.
A Spanish ship deployed in the European Union’s Operation Sophia naval mission recovered the dead, along with 64 survivors, from a sinking rubber boat, the mission said on its Facebook page.
“A tough day in the Central Mediterranean Sea,” the Facebook post said, adding the rescues had started in the early morning.
Six rescue operations were carried out in total on Friday, the spokesman said, making it one of the busiest days for rescues in recent months. Seven people were found dead and 900 saved on Wednesday.
The Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti was heading for the southern port of Reggio Calabria with 764 rescued migrants on board, the ANSA news agency said in a report confirmed by the coast guard spokesman.
Diciotti was also carrying eight dead bodies, ANSA said. It was not clear if they had been among those recovered by the Spanish ship.
Those rescued were originally from Sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan, Libya, Bangladesh, Algeria, Egypt, Nepal, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, ANSA said.
In the Aegean Sea on Friday, three people drowned, six were known to be missing and scores of others were rescued while trying to reach Greece.
Some 700 migrants rescued in Mediterranean, 23 found dead
Some 700 migrants rescued in Mediterranean, 23 found dead
Britain restricts some visas from four nations in major overhaul
- Britain had previously said it would make refugee status temporary and speed up deportations of those who arrive illegally, in an overhaul aimed at stemming the rise of the populist Reform UK party and tackling abuse of the current system
LONDON: Britain said on Tuesday the government would end study visas from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan, and work visas for Afghans, in a major crackdown as anti-immigration sentiment rises in the country.
“An ‘emergency brake’ on visas has been imposed for the first time on nationals from four countries following a surge in asylum claims from legal routes,” the Home Office said in a statement.
Britain had previously said it would make refugee status temporary and speed up deportations of those who arrive illegally, in an overhaul aimed at stemming the rise of the populist Reform UK party and tackling abuse of the current system.
Interior minister Shabana Mahmood said that “Britain will always provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution, but our visa system must not be abused.”
“That is why I am taking the unprecedented decision to refuse visas for those nationals seeking to exploit our generosity,” she added.
The Home Office said Mahmood will introduce new legislation this week to restore order and control to the country’s borders.
