Italian police rescue 5 migrants adrift off Sicily

The Associated Press
1:22 p.m. August 20, 2009

ROME — Italian border police rescued five African migrants adrift for days in a dinghy off the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Thursday. Survivors said up to 75 others died at sea, according to authorities.

Maltese officials later said seven bodies had been sighted in Libyan waters this week, but it was unclear if they were among the 75.

The survivors were dehydrated and two were hospitalized after being taken to Lampedusa, Palermo-based Border Police Col. Riccardo Rocconi said by telephone.

The four men and one woman, believed to be Eritreans, told rescuers they had set sail three weeks ago from Libya, Rocconi said. The police official said the boat's motor had run out of fuel.

A helicopter had spotted seven bodies in Libya's waters since Tuesday, Maltese authorities said, adding that it wasn't known if they might have been among those the survivors said had perished.

The helicopter was a Malta-based German border police aircraft, part of a multinational force that patrols the Mediterranean in the fight against illegal migration.

The bodies were not recovered because they were outside of Maltese waters, authorities said.

Rocconi said that before any search for additional survivors could begin, a translator was needed to learn just where in the Mediterranean the 12-meter (40-foot) dinghy was when the others allegedly died.

Many migrants trying to reach Europe perish on smugglers' boats.

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=152732