Italy rescues Libyan refugees

PanARMENIAN.Net - Italian coast guards plucked 48 refugees from the Mediterranean on Wednesday, April 6, and spotted 15 bodies at sea after a boat laden with some 200 migrants from Libya capsized during the night.

"We have rescued 48 people alive from the sea while 15 bodies have been spotted by the crew of the helicopter," said coast guard spokesman Vittorio Alessandro, based on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa.

Around 130 people who were on the boat are believed to be missing.

"We are still hoping. Our boats and helicopters have thrown all sorts of lifejackets and lifeboats to allow people to hold on," Alessandro said.

Coast guards said in a statement that the boat was 13 meters long and had departed two days ago from the town of Zuwarah in western Libya. The statement said the people on the boat were mostly Eritreans and Somalis.

Hundreds of African refugees from Libya - many of them migrant workers stranded after the start of an uprising against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and the beginnings of a civil war - have landed in Italy in recent days, AFP reports.

More than 20,000 migrants fleeing continuing unrest in Tunisia have also arrived on Lampedusa, sparking a humanitarian emergency.

Migrants and refugees often travel in rickety and overcrowded fishing boats and there have already been smaller accidents at sea.

The tiny island of Lampedusa is closer to North African shores than to mainland Italy and has become a gateway for illegal immigration into Europe.