Nearly 3,500 migrants rescued in Mediterranean

Rome, June 8 (IANS/EFE) The 3,480 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday by ships from Italy, Germany and Ireland are arriving in Italy, where they will receive medical assistance before being transferred to detention centres, officials said.

A total of 869 migrants -- 579 men, 191 women and 99 children -- have arrived in Palermo, a port off Sicily, an Italian coast guard spokesman said.

Officials with the Malta-based Migrant Offshore Aid Station, or MOAS, confirmed that its vessels were transporting 372 migrants to the Sicilian port of Augusta.

The migrants -- 184 men, 126 women and 62 children -- are mainly from Eritrea, MOAS representatives said.

The State of Eritrea is a country in the Horn of Africa.

The other 2,239 migrants will be taken to the ports of Trapani in Sicily and Taranto in Puglia, the Italian coast guard said.

The migrants sailed from Libya aboard 15 ships that were in danger of sinking, the Italian coast guard added.

Waves of African migrants fleeing conflicts continue to reach Italy's shores, with the journey often ending up in disasters like the April 19 shipwreck that killed about 850 people.

--IANS/EFE

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