ITALIAN MILITARY FINDS BODIES OF MIGRANTS IN MEDITERRANEAN

EUX.TV, Netherlands
Aug 14 2007

Rome (dpa) – Italian military pilots have found the bodies of an
unconfirmed number of suspected would-be migrants in the Mediterranean
Sea amid a wave of attempted illegal migration prompted by favourable
weather conditions.

The bodies were located around 50 nautical miles south of the island
of Lampedusa, military officials said in Palermo.

Italian state television reported that there were around 10 dead.

Military and coastguard vessels by Tuesday evening had however
recovered just three bodies, it was reported.

The exact circumstances of the latest Mediterranean drowning tragedy
where not known.

Coastguard officials also on Tuesday evening intercepted a rubber
dinghy with around 45 migrants aboard off Lampedusa.

The latest events bring to 300 the number of would-be immigrants that
are believed to have attempted the crossing from North Africa to Italy
in one day alone: some 230 migrants landed on the islands of Sardinia,
Sicily and Lampedusa within a matter of hours.

Meanwhile a trafficking gang is believed to have been responsible
for smuggling some 17 Iraqi Kurds found aboard a car ferry in the
Adriatic port of Brindisi, which had set out from Greece.

One Turkish national and an Armenian were arrested on suspicion of
people-smuggling, while the Kurds were to be deported.

Officials say good weather and calms seas are responsible for the
spike in attempted illegal migration.

Italian news agency Ansa further reported the interception by
coastguard officials of a boat with 150 migrants aboard off the
coast of Sardinia. The Algerian nationals were escorted to the port
of Cagliari.

Some 43 would-be immigrants, many of them women, meanwhile landed on
Lampedusa, just hours after an earlier group of 24. A further 18 men
reached the south coast of Sicily in their boat.

Some 260 Africans had landed on Lampedusa over the weekend.