About 127 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya on Wednesday in operations conducted by the Italian Coast Guard in collaboration with Migrant Offshore Aid Station, a Maltese-based foundation dedicated to saving lives at sea.
127 migrants rescued off Libyan coast sent to Lampedusa
After their rescue from a dinghy floating in the sea off the coast of Libya, the migrants were transferred onto two Italian Coast guard vessels and brought to shore on the island of Lampedusa.
According to the International Organisation for Migration, Italy has so far received about 40,000 migrants this year.
About 170 thousand migrants reached Italy by sea in 2014 while the number decreased to 153 thousand in 2015.
#Libya intercepts 850 migrants in inflatable rubber boats https://t.co/01XICqM2Qf— africanews (@africanews) May 23, 2016
An estimated 8,000 people are also believed to have died in the Mediterranean since the start of 2014. Some died off the Italian coast and others on the way to Greece.