Italy rescues 1,200 migrants in series of operations in one day

More than 1,200 people were rescued off the Libyan coast in a number of operations on Thursday, The Italian Coast Guard has confirmed.

In one incident the coast guard rescued 381 migrants - including 55 women and 26 children from Syria, Bangladesh and Sub-Saharan Africa - off a boat that run into trouble in the Mediterranean.

This latest rescue happened approximately 15 miles north of where a fishing boat carrying about 600 people capsized on Wednesday, according to the Italian official news agency ANSA.

The agency said the “Fiorillo” Coast Guard boat - known as a cutter - was in the area as part of a search and rescue mission for those missing from the boat wreck the previous day.

The vessel the migrants were traveling in sank immediately after today’s rescue operation. Also on Thursday, an Irish Navy ship recovered 25 bodies, and 367 survivors from Wednesday’s shipwreck – taking them to Palermo port. Of the survivors, 24 were women and 13 were minors.

An additional six asylum seekers were helicoptered to hospital. Meanwhile a ship operated by the humanitarian NGO, Doctors Without Borders, rescued 97 people from an inflatable dinghy 20 nautical miles north of Libya, then assisted another vessel in distress.

That second operation, which involved a number of other ships, resulted in the rescue of 613 people. The Italian Navy saved 101 further people who were on board another inflatable dinghy. This brings to about 1,200 the number of people rescued on Thursday off the Libyan coast in various operations coordinated by the Italian Coast Guard, according to ANSA.