Around eight-hundred migrants have been brought to the Italian port of Reggio Calabria. They were picked up from boats in the Mediterranean during
Around eight-hundred migrants have been brought to the Italian port of Reggio Calabria.
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They were picked up from boats in the Mediterranean during several operations.
Several women and many children were among the migrants, who are mainly from Africa and Syria.
They were checked by medical workers as they disembarked a Norwegian rescue vessel.
More than two-thousand migrants and refugees have died so far this year trying to reach Europe by boat, compared with 3,279 during the whole of last year, according to the International Organisation for Migration.
Traffickers have sent more than 90,000 migrants by sea to Italy so far this year, the UN refugee agency says. Italy took in 170,000 in 2014.
This summer’s mass arrivals in both Italy and Greece show the crisis is worsening. Immigrants fleeing violence and poverty at home to continue to arrive from Africa and the Middle East.
Many look to move swiftly to wealthier northern Europe, including to Britain from Calais in France.