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Italy says 3,700 boat migrants rescued, operations ongoing
Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) founder Regina Catrambone of Italy watches as the MOAS ship MV Phoenix sails outside Valletta's Grand Harbour, Malta, May 2, 2015. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
By Steve Scherer
03/05/2015
ROME (Reuters) - Nearly 3,700 migrants were rescued from boats near the coast of Libya on Saturday and early Sunday and more rescue operations were expected during the day as people smugglers took advantage of calm seas, Italy's coast guard said.
All of those rescued were being brought back to Italian shores, a spokesman for the coast guard said, and some reached Lampedusa, Italy's southernmost island, during the night.
The mild spring weather and the calm summer seas are expected to push total arrivals in Italy for 2015 to 200,000, an increase of 30,000 over last year, according to an Interior Ministry projection.
The nationalities of those rescued had not yet been determined, he said. Italy coordinated the rescue efforts mounted by a total of 13 vessels. Italy's navy, coast guard and finance police were involved, as was a French ship acting on behalf of the European border control agency.
Growing lawlessness and anarchy in Libya is giving free hand to people smugglers who make an average of 80,000 euros ($90,000) from each boatload of migrants, according to an ongoing investigation by a southern Italian court.
Shocked by what was described as the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in memory last month, EU leaders agreed to triple funding for its Triton sea patrol mission after a migrant boat capsized and up to 900 drowned.
(Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
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