As the European Union debates the contentious issue of immigration, Italy continues to accept daily boat-loads of people from north Africa.
Italian media reports a privately-funded search and rescue vessel has intercepted boats containing hundreds of people and carried them to safety in Sicily.
407 migrants/refugees from Eritrea, Somalia, Gambia and Syria arriving in Messina, Sicily on moas_eu MSF_Sea ship pic.twitter.com/0GWryZwz6y— Alexander Marquardt (@MarquardtA) May 16, 2015
The M.Y. Phoenix belongs to a couple from Malta, who work with aid group Migrant Offshore Aid Station (MOAS) and Doctors Without Borders.
Dr Simon Bryant is working on behalf of Doctors Without Borders in Messina, Sicily.
“So, we ended up with 407 people on this boat, and one young man had a surgical problem,” he said. “We had to transfer him to Lampedusa to the Coast Guard vessel. Also we saw lots of skin conditions, like scabies, in this group – maybe (about) 80 people. We screen everybody when t
