Fifty-seven migrants were rescued by Italian customs
police and the coastguard and taken to the island of Lampedusa, the
ANSA news agency reported.
The migrants were on a boat intercepted off Lampione, an uninhabited
islet off Lampedusa. They were picked up and taken to Lampedusa late
on Saturday. According to ANSA, there was a pregnant woman and a boy suffering
from an apparent nervous breakdown among them. He was visited by
doctors before joining the other migrants in a reception centre.
ANSA said the migrants are likely to be Tunisians.
Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini claims credit for a
drastic drop in migrant arrivals to Italy, linking it to his efforts
to block the work of migrant rescue charities.
Most sea migrants reach Italy without the help of charities.
Matteo Villa, a migration researcher at the ISPI think tank, has
calculated that only 8 per cent of the 3,073 migrants who landed in
Italy in the January 1-July 8 period were rescued by charity ships.
Twenty-seven unaccompanied minors leave the harbour in Lampedusa in police vans yesterday.