Italy rescues migrants

MILAN: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is trying to find countries willing to take in some 450 migrants rescued from an overcrowded ship in the Mediterranean on Saturday, a source at the premier´s office said. A ship operated by EU border agency Frontex and a vessel owned by Italy´s tax police picked up the migrants near the Italian island of Linosa and more than 100 nautical miles from Malta, which rejected pressure from Rome on Friday to rescue them. Italy´s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini is leading a high-profile campaign to exclude humanitarian rescue ships from Italian ports and has said the migrants will not be allowed to land in Italy. Eight of the migrants who needed medical assistance were taken to the Italian island of Lampedusa for treatment, the source said. The source, who asked not to be named, said Salvini had spoken with Conte on the telephone about how to resolve the situation. “The migrants could be distributed immediately among European countries, or Italy would contact Libya to send them back to where they came from,” the source said. A third option would be to leave the migrants on the ships temporarily while their asylum requests are considered, the source added.

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