Irish ship, LÉ Róisín rescues 123 people off Libyan coast

Some 123 people have been rescued by the LÉ Róisín from a 12m long rubber vessel off the Libyan coast near Tripoli.

Following a request from Italian Maritime Rescue Co-ordination Centre and Operation Mare Sicuro, the Irish ship located the and rescued the people on board.

The body of a man was also recovered from the vessel some 28 Nautical Miles NW of Tripoli.

The rescue mission began at around 8am local time and took around two and a half hours.

Those rescued are now receiving food, water and medical treatment on the LÉ Róisín.

Earlier, 800 migrants, plucked to safety from rickety boats in the Mediterranean, have been greeted by emergency services as they arrived at the Sicilian port of Catania today.

The Italian coastguard said at least 45 migrants died in a shipwreck yesterday and more than 2,000 were rescued from boats, as the number of migrants heading for Europe via Italy soared again.

• Around 14,000 people were rescued from often flimsy vessels during the week, the United Nations and the coastguard said, with at least three shipwrecks believed to have occurred.

• According to survivors and boat crews, hundreds may have drowned, though there are no official estimates of total casualties.

The coastguard said the warmer weather and calmer seas had led to a surge in the number of people trying to cross from Libya, where people smugglers operate with relative impunity.

The numbers managing to reach Italy were comparable to the same period in the last two years.

The migrants, many of whom do not know how to swim and or have life jackets, pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to make the crossing.

In 2014 and 2015, more than 320,000 boat migrants arrived on Italian shores, and an estimated 7,000 died in the Mediterranean as they sought to reach Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Yesterday, the IOM said it estimated the total Mediterranean deaths at sea this year to be 1,475.
  [rte.ie]
28/5/16
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Related:

• 45 migrants dead, 135 rescued at sea: Italian Navy 

• Two refugee boats capsize in 24 hours off Libya coast

• Migrants back on Mediterranean route for EU, thousands rescued

• Refugees "Bargain" : No visas, no migrant deal, warns Turkey