Brussels, 30/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - Italian coastguards announced in the evening of Monday 29 June that, in the previous 48 hours, they had rescued 4,400 migrants off the coast of Libya and taken them on to Sicily and the south of the country.
These latest arrivals take the number of people who have reached Italy to 69,000 since the start of the year, according to International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimates. On Sunday 28 June, coastguards coordinated the rescue of 21 vessels in difficulty and, on Monday, 1,500 migrants on board 8 vessels were assisted.
Italian vessels, along with British, Irish, Swedish and Spanish naval vessels, and the Phoenix, chartered by the humanitarian organisations Moas and Médecins sans Frontières, took part in the operations, AFP reports.
The arrival of the migrants in the ports of Sicily and the south of Italy will lift the number of people reaching the Italian coast to more than 69,000 since the start of the year - more than the record 63,885 arrivals recorded by the Italian authorities in the first six months of 2014.
On Thursday 26 June, European leaders reached agreement on relocating 40,000 people in clear need of international protection among the member states but rejected the idea, floated by the Commission at the end of May, of set quotas and would only accept voluntary commitments on numbers of people to be taken. They also agreed to relocate 20,000 people currently living in UN camps in third countries, essentially countries neighbouring Syria - a less contentious decision.
On 2 July, an asylum working group will meet at the Council of the EU to consider the proposals for sharing out the asylum seekers. The commitment of the European Council of 26 June is to agree the arrangements for sharing out the 40,000 asylum seekers by the end of July. Since Parliament has to deliver an opinion, the distribution mechanism will only begin in the autumn, assuming there is agreement in July. (Solenn Paulic)