ROME — Italian authorities rushed on Sunday to eliminate overcrowding in shelters after ratings of boats bring a overall of about 1,000 migrants reached Italy’s southern coasts and 2 of its small islands over the weekend.
Nearly 50 boats showedup inbetween Friday night and Saturday on Lampedusa island off Sicily, according to state radio and other Italian media. Other boats bring migrants reached Pantelleria, another small island preferred by tourists.
Hundreds of migrants stepped ashore from the virtual flotilla of smugglers’ vessels on those islands. Several of the vessels released by migrant smugglers held as coupleof as 8 guests. But others had around 100 travelers aboard, lotsof of them from Tunisia, according to the reports.
Other boats reached the coasts of the Italian mainland on Saturday, either unaided or helped by Italian coast guard vessels.
The Italian news firm ANSA stated that 92 migrants, most of them from Afghanistan, reached Puglia — the “heel” of the boot-shaped peninsula — in a sailboat on Saturday. Still other