Italy continues to face sea flows, over 2,500 migrants expected to arrive at weekend

 More than 2,500 sea migrants are expected to be brought to southern Italy between Friday and Saturday, after being rescued during their perilous crossing of the Mediterranean, according to local reports.

Early on Friday, 592 migrants arrived in Palermo, the capital city of Sicily island region, onboard the Bourbon Argos ship operated by medical aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF). Among them there were 464 men, 119 women and 9 children, including very small ones.

"Most of these migrants came from sub-Saharan Africa, and we rescued them in three separate operations," a MSF spokesperson, Sara Creta, told Xinhua.

Creta, who was onboard the ship, said the migrants were rescued off the Libyan coasts, and all of them told aid operators that "Libya's deteriorating situation is alarming."

"All of the migrants who talked to us said they have either suffered or witnessed violence in Libya. Many said they saw people dying or being beaten. Some said they would have never decided to attempt the crossing if they had known about all of this violence," she told Xinhua.

Creta underlined there are people with very different stories among those trying to reach Europe.

"We tend to believe that the migrants are all the same, or youngsters who want to flee poverty and find a job here, but in fact there are all kinds of situations, including adults, very young couples and unaccompanied children," she noted.

"For example, yesterday I talked to a Mali high school professor born in 1964, who faced the journey to reach his family in France. They have been far from each other for some nine years," she went on saying.

"I also met a 21-year-old Nigerian holding her four-month-old son, as well as a 13-year-old child who was travelling alone, without his family," she said.

Creta highlighted that these different stories make rescuers feel very close to the people they manage to save.

"They are frightened when we first find them in trouble at sea. Many have not a life jacket or cannot even swim. Then we take them onboard, and we spend two days together before reaching land. During that time, we build a relationship with these people. We feel so sympathetic towards them," she explained to Xinhua.

Three other ships carrying hundreds of migrants are expected to reach Italian ports in the coming hours, according to ANSA news agency.

Italy is coping with continuous flows from African and Middle Eastern countries. Earlier this week, around 100 migrants protested near Rosarno, a town in southern Italy, after an officer of Carabinieri military police shot dead a Mali migrant who stabbed him at a crowded tent camp.

Local prosecutors said the officer acted in "legitimate defense," yet tension mounted among the migrants. A group of them were reported as saying to the local press that conditions in the camp were "a disgrace."

Italian police have detained numerous suspected human traffickers in recent times. On Friday, an Eritrean national extradited to Italy earlier this week admitted making the phone calls that investigators say prove he ran a wide operation to smuggle migrants from Africa to Europe, but he denied the accusations, according to ANSA.

As many as 49,757 migrants have reached Italy by sea from Jan. 1 to June 10, and the country is presently hosting 123,332 migrants in its reception centers, sources from the Italian interior ministry told Xinhua on Friday.

Italy is on track to receive around 200,000 sea migrants for 2016, according to the local press.

A report released by national statistics institute Istat on Friday said that foreigners in Italy account for 8.3 percent at the national level, or around five million people of over 60 million residents, with more than half coming from European countries.

source : xinhua