ROME (Reuters) – Italy’s Coast Guard said on Monday it was forced to use a helicopter to rescue 32 migrants, including a child, who had been stranded on a desert island in the central Mediterranean since the previous say.
Picking the migrants from the islet of Lampione, part of the same archipelago as Lampedusa island, proved impossible via sea due to “particularly adverse” sea and weather conditions, the Coast Guard said in a statement.
The helicopter took the migrants to Lampedusa, the usual landing spot for sea migrants who set off from Tunisia and Libya, making several trips amid winds of up to 50 knots, the statement added.
According to the ANSA news agency, the rescued migrants are from Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Mali.
Earlier Monday, charity Alarm Phone, which picks up calls from migrant boats in distress, said a vessel with around 500 people aboard needed rescuing in international waters off Libya.
In February, a deadly shipwreck took place when Italian police boats failed to intercept a migrant boat in rough seas near the coast of the southern Calabria region.
More than 90 people died, and charities and opposition politicians have questioned why the Coast Guard, with vessels better equipped for high seas, did not intervene immediately.
(Reporting by Federico Maccioni; editing by Alvise Armellini and Jonathan Oatis)
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