Italy: More than 100 people rescued from small boats

Rome: Italian rescuers have saved hundreds of people trying to cross the sea on small boats. On Saturday night 90 migrants reached the port of Roccella Ionica, in Italy’s southern region of Calabria, on board an Italian Coast Guard patrol vessel.

On Sunday morning 29 migrants arrived in the port of Bari on board the Ocean Viking vessel and other 69 migrants will reach the port of Ravenna on Tuesday on board the Humanity 1 vessel.

The migrants who landed at Roccella Ionica were crossing the Mediterranean on a 20-metre-long sailboat.

They departed from the Turkish coast four days earlier and were rescued 75 miles off Locride.

Those rescued included 14 children and 24 women and were mostly from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria. They were given a medical examinations and taken to a temporary centre run by volunteers from the Red Cross, Civil Protection, and Médecins sans Frontières.