(AFP) More than 500 migrants have arrived on Lampedusa over the past two days, the UN’s migration agency said Friday, as people take advantage of calm seas to attempt the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.
Since the start of summer, the island has seen a sharp increase in the number of migrants landing there directly, even as others picked up from the Mediterranean by charity rescue boats have been brought in recent days [to] Sicily to the north.
Nine boats arrived Thursday from Tunisia, carrying a total of 116 people. A further 434 people arrived Friday, on seven boats from Tunisia and two larger vessels from Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration.
Most of those on the boats from Libya — 95 people on one and 267 on the other — hail from Bangladesh, the IOM said.
