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IMMIGRATION

Two migrants dead, eight missing off Sardinia

Two migrants have drowned off the coast of Sardinia and another eight are missing after they tried to swim to land from their drifting boat, the coastguard said on Saturday.

Published: 18 November 2018 12:04 CET
Two migrants dead, eight missing off Sardinia
A file photo of the Sardinian coast. Photo: AFP

The wooden boat carrying 13 migrants, reportedly Algerian, lost power on Thursday and 10 of them decided to try to swim to land, an Italian coastguard statement said.

“The (three) surviving migrants said that after the engine failure about one kilometre (over half a mile) off the island of Toro, 10 of the 13 occupants jumped into the sea to swim to the coast,” it said.

Boats, planes and helicopters were deployed to find them, with two bodies recovered and the search ongoing.

Italian government figures say that 1,167 Algerian migrants have arrived in Italy so far this year.

READ ALSO: Salvini meets rescued migrants, promises 'welcome' in Italy

IMMIGRATION

France ‘will not welcome migrants’ from Lampedusa: interior minister

France "will not welcome migrants" from the island, Gérald Darmanin has insisted

Published: 20 September 2023 09:06 CEST
France 'will not welcome migrants' from Lampedusa: interior minister

France will not welcome any migrants coming from Italy’s Lampedusa, interior minister Gérald Darmanin has said after the Mediterranean island saw record numbers of arrivals.

Some 8,500 people arrived on Lampedusa on 199 boats between Monday and Wednesday last week, according to the UN’s International Organisation for
Migration, prompting European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to travel there Sunday to announce an emergency action plan.

According to Darmanin, Paris told Italy it was “ready to help them return people to countries with which we have good diplomatic relations”, giving the
example of Ivory Coast and Senegal.

But France “will not welcome migrants” from the island, he said, speaking on French television on Tuesday evening.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called on Italy’s EU partners to share more of the responsibility.

The recent arrivals on Lampedusa equal more than the whole population of the tiny Italian island.

The mass movement has stoked the immigration debate in France, where political parties in the country’s hung parliament are wrangling over a draft law governing new arrivals.

France is expected to face a call from Pope Francis for greater tolerance towards migrants later this week during a high-profile visit to Mediterranean city Marseille, where the pontiff will meet President Emmanuel Macron and celebrate mass before tens of thousands in a stadium.

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