Photo: 500 Migrants from Nigeria, Ghana, Others Rescued in the Mediterranean

 

A spokesman of the Italian coastguard told AFP on Sunday that some 500 migrants were rescued in seven operations launched over the weekend in the Mediterranean, adding that four of the rescue operations had already wound up but the others were ongoing.

"Saturday was quiet on the whole but now there is further movement. We have had several interventions - one by a ship belonging to (medical charity) MSF, two coastguard units as well as an Italian naval ship and a ship belonging to EU Navfor Med," he said.

 

The migrants mainly came from the west African countries of Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Sierra Leone and left Libya three days earlier. They were rescued about 80 kilometres off the Libyan coast.

 

The EU Navfor Med is a military operation launched at the end of June to identify, capture and dispose of vessels and rescue migrants undertaking risky journeys in a desperate bid to try and get to Europe from war-ravaged Syria and other trouble spots.

 

About 500,000 people have come to Europe so far this year, the International Organization for Migration says, many of them taking perilous journeys across the Mediterranean on inflatable dinghies, while more than 2,800 people have died or disappeared making the crossing since January.