Italian security sources stated three boats, carrying more than 150 migrants, arrived on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa.
The sources described the mooring of the boats on the coast of Lampedusa Agrigento as “continuing without stopping”.
At midnight on Tuesday, “A boat carrying 43 people was intercepted by the patrols. A further 15 migrants were stopped this morning by the Ports Protection Authority. The Maritime Police intercepted another boat carrying about 100 migrants,” the sources added.
The sources pointed out that it has transferred 306 immigrants to the quarantine ship, Suprima. This already holds 762 people, among them 81 immigrants infected with COVID-19.
Last week, Italian Marine Police rescued about a hundred immigrants on board a rubber boat that was about to sink, security sources told ADNKI agency. “The patrol intervened in the Cala Pisana area on the eastern coast of the island, after it received a report about a boat facing difficulties,” the sources added.
The sources noted that the “Land and sea security apparatus was immediately activated to salvage, assist, and escort the migrants”.
In October, the humanitarian organisation AlarmPhone said that the Italian Coast Guard rescued a migrant boat off the coast of Sicily. It added that the Coast Guard “rushed to the rescue of the boat that we reported yesterday overnight,” as “the 87 migrants who were on board were picked up and brought to the island of Lampedusa.”