2,100 migrants rescued in Mediterranean

Some 2,100 migrants were rescued at sea and brought to safety in Italy, the Italian coast guard said yesterday.

Among those rescued on Friday and early yesterday was a sixweek-old boy, one of seven migrants transferred to a coast guard motorboat and sped to a medical facility. One body was recovered.

The onset of warmer weather has encouraged even more human traffickers based in Libya to launch overcrowded, unseaworthy dinghies or small wooden boats, leaving migrants to the mercy of the deadly Mediterranean Sea.

Besides Italian coast guard vessels and a Spanish navy ship, two cargo ships and boats operated by NGOs helped in the rescue effort.

The migrants, mostly from subSaharan Africa, are fleeing war, conflict as well as poverty.

Spain’s defence ministry said migrants were plucked from rubber boats and wooden craft intercepted in waters near Libya’s coast.

The ministry said that the baby saved had been showing signs of dehydration.