Another batch of rescued migrants arrive in Italy

More than 600 rescued migrants arrived in southern Italy’s Reggio Calabria port on Sunday morning.

The migrants arrived in an Italian navy vessel Vega in the latest patrol of EU ships operating in the Mediterranean.

629 migrants were rescued from several boats.

According to UNICEF, the Italian navy vessel was also carrying 45 bodies of a migrant shipwreck that occurred on Friday.

Reports further indicate that three vessels carrying migrants have capsized this past week and over 60 bodies have been recovered.

The UN refugee agency says at least 700 migrants are feared drowned in a series of shipwrecks off the coast of Libya in the last few days.

A surge in migrant traffic this week between Libya and Italy has seen more than 14,000 being saved from overcrowded boats since Monday.

Many of the migrants are fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa and the Middle East in search of a better life.

Recently, the European Union Committee charged with overseeing the end of migrant smuggling in the Mediterranean said it is proving to be difficult.

In June 2015, the EU launched an operation dubbed Sophia aimed at curbing migrant inflows. This was necessitated after a series of disasters in which hundreds of migrants drowned while trying to cross from Libya to Italy.

Reuters, Press Agencies