Italian ship rescues 26 refugees off Libyan coast

Italian merchant ship resuces 26 refugees off Libyan coast, with dozens more people feared missing

Refugees sit in a rescue boat during a rescue operation by Italian Navy vessels off the coast of Sicily in this April 11, 2016 handout picture provided by Marina Militare.
Reuters

Refugees sit in a rescue boat during a rescue operation by Italian Navy vessels off the coast of Sicily in this April 11, 2016 handout picture provided by Marina Militare.

An Italian merchant ship rescued 26 refugees off the coast of Libya in rough seas and others were feared missing, the country's Coast Guard said on Saturday.

The Coast Guard received a call from a satellite telephone on Friday but no voice was heard. It tracked the signal to a location about seven miles off the Libyan coast, a spokesman said.

An Italian merchant vessel in the area was diverted and on Friday night rescued the 26 people from a rubber boat that had taken on water.

The spokesman said such boats used by human traffickers can hold between 100-120 people and are usually full but no information was available on the number that might be missing.

The refugees were transferred onto a Coast Guard ship in international waters and taken to Lampedusa, the island south of Sicily where tens of thousands have arrived in recent years.

With the closing of land routes in the Balkans and a recent deal under which Greece sends asylum seekers back to Turkey, Italian officials expect more to try to make the longer and much more dangerous crossing from Libya.

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