Women and children rescued from migrant boat

Thirty children and four pregnant women were among hundreds of migrants who landed in Italy yesterday after Libya and Malta denied their pleas for help. The 207 migrants, including 30 children were in poor health when their boat arrived in the Sicilian port of Pozzallo. One person died on the crossing from Libya. The Libyan coast guard first spotted their overloaded fishing boat on Friday. Calls for help made via satellite telephone were ignored by Malta and Libya, reports said. The migrants, who were found adrift 70 miles north of Benghazi on Saturday, were escorted into Italy’s search and rescue area by an Italian tanker under the watch of a Malta patrol boat. An Italian tugboat met it. Libyan police arrested two men suspected of organising the crossing. The two arrested were a 26-year-old Eritrean, who was found with a false Sudanese passport, and the Libyan owner of the wooden fishing boat they were travelling on, according to reports from the Italian media. The owner of the boat had reported it missing about 10 days ago and it was identified from a photo taken from a helicopter.

On Friday, one of the migrants on board the fishing boat called a relative in Italy, who told the Italian authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for refugees that there were women and children on the boat who needed help and told them where the migrants were. A Libyan warship, which was reported to have been on the way to pick up the migrants on Sunday evening, never showed up. Two boats with doctors on board, which left Italy on Sunday, were unable to reach the fishing boat because of the bad weather.

When the tanker reached the boat, Rome, which was running the rescue, directed it into Malta’s search and rescue area. When the two boats entered Malta’s search and rescue region, captain Mariano Adragna who told Italian media the migrants wanted to reach Italy. "The migrants refused to go on the Maltese patrol boat. They did not want Malta's help but wanted to reach Italy," Captain Adragna told L'Occidentale. Today the migrants were due to be transferred to a reception centre in Sicily, where medical staff were scrambled to help local doctors and nurses. Italy has been criticised by the United Nations and rights groups for a controversial 'friendship' pact with Libya. Under the pact, thousands of migrants have since May been returned to the North African country aboard people smuggling boats intercepted in the Mediterranean by Italian and Libyan patrols.

By Hayley Jarvis for SOS Children