9,000 migrants rescued in Mediterranean over weekend

UN aid agencies said on Tuesday that nearly 9,000 mainly African migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean this past long Easter weekend, after setting out from Libya on unseaworthy boats to try to reach southern Italy and a gateway to Europe,

“This was an overwhelming search and rescue operation by all sides involved,” Babar Baloch, spokesman of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, told a news briefing.

Also the International Organisation for Migration spokesman Leonard Doyle said that better spring weather had encouraged smugglers to take migrants out of detention centers in Libya.

Doyle said no fewer than 900 migrants have died or have gone missing while attempting to reach Europe by sea so far this year.

He also said 36,000 others have been rescued, as against 24,000 in 2016.(Reuters/NAN)