Rome - Hundreds of Syrian refugees have been rescued in
rough seas and brought to Italy's southern coast in the last 24 hours, the
Italian coastguard said on Saturday.
Three boats carrying 809 refugees and possibly some
migrants, including many women and children, were intercepted off the
Mediterranean islands of Lampedusa and Sicily and off the mainland region of
Calabria in the toe of Italy.
One boat carrying 171 refugees was in difficulty and
gradually sinking when it was rescued about 40km off Calabria, the coastguard
said.
All the 359 refugees rescued off Syracuse in Sicily and the
171 rescued off Calabria appeared to be from Syria, the Italian authorities
said, while the nationality of those rescued off Lampedusa was not available.
The number of Syrian refugees reaching Italy has increased
steadily in recent months and the United Nations estimates that 3,300 have
arrived since the start of August.
More than 2 million refugees have now fled Syria's civil
war, mainly to neighbouring Iraq, Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon, out of a
population of about 20 million. The two-and-a-half-year conflict is estimated
to have killed more than 100 000 people.
Thousands of migrants and refugees try to reach Italy's
southern shores in summer, when Mediterranean waters are calm enough for
smaller boats to make the crossing, usually from Libya or Tunisia.
Though most come from sub-Saharan Africa, this year many are
fleeing the Syrian civil war or political turmoil in Egypt and other parts of
North Africa.
Many are drawn by hopes of finding work in Europe and often
do not remain in Italy.
Illegal migrants intercepted by Italian authorities are
taken to state-run immigration centres. Some leave the often lightly guarded
buildings to seek work, and those who remain and cannot prove that they are
political refugees can be sent home.
