The spokesman said such boats used by human traffickers can hold
between 100-120 people and are usually full but no information was
available on the number that might be missing.
Migrants
receive emergency relief in a port, after being rescued at sea by
Libyan coast guard, in Tripoli, Libya April 11, 2016.
An Italian merchant ship
rescued 26 migrants off the coast of Libya in rough seas and others were
feared missing, the Coast Guard said on Saturday.
The
Coast Guard received a call from a satellite telephone on Friday but no
voice was heard. It tracked the signal to a location about seven miles
off the Libyan coast, a spokesman said.
An Italian
merchant vessel in the area was diverted and on Friday night rescued
the 26 from a rubber boat that had taken on water.
The
spokesman said such boats used by human traffickers can hold between
100-120 people and are usually full but no information was available on
the number that might be missing.
The migrants
were tranferred onto a Coast Guard ship in international waters and
taken to Lampedusa, the island south of Sicily where tens of thousands
have arrived in recent years.
With the closing of
land routes in the Balkans and a recent deal under which Greece sends
migrants back to Turkey, Italian officials expect more to try to make
the longer and much more dangerous crossing from Libya.
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