Italy to receive $620 million to cope with migrant influx

Italy’s navy says it has rescued 52 migrants from a sinking rubber dinghy in the Mediterranean, but about 50 others are missing. Safer places on board cost more; life vests were sold separately as extras, police said.

92 men, 26 women and seven children were saved and are getting water, food and medical assistance.

When the trawler developed problems, “the smugglers called their people in Libya to ask if they could come back but were told to continue to Italy”, the organization said, citing one survivor’s account.

This is the latest of a number of rescue operations trying to save boat people often escaping war and persecution via the Mediterranean Sea.

The remaining 14 of the migrants who survived were brought to the Sicilian port of Messina on July 29 by the Irish Navy Ship Le Niamh.

The Mediterranean has become the world’s most deadly border zone for migrants.

The survivors, who have since been taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa, said there were originally at least 100 people on board the boat.

Around 200 migrants were presumed killed earlier this month off the coast of Libya when their boat capsized. The traffickers ordered the migrants to bail the water from the vessel, but many of them could not and they were beaten with the clubs, knives and belts. More than 900,000 people have attempted to travel to Europe and over 2,000 have died.