LAMPEDUSA – Over 500 migrants landed on the southernmost island of Italy during the night between Thursday and Friday, said the coast guard. Over 500 more rescued migrants are still waiting at sea for safe harbour.

 At around 1 a.m. Friday morning, two patrol boats arrived at the Favaloro pier, carrying respectively 164 and 141 migrants of various nationalities. Among them were 17 women and six minors.

 They had been rescued several hours earlier from boats that had been left adrift, about 17 miles south of Lampedusa.

 Meanwhile, some 505 migrants are still waiting at sea, near Lampedusa, for the assignment of a safe harbour.

 On board the ‘Ionian Sea’ are 208 people from Libya, who were rescued in two operations Thursday and Friday from the central Mediterranean. NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans say that that the survivors “carry signs of abuse and violence on their bodies, suffered in detention camps” as well as from their ordeal at sea. The crew is providing the first necessary health care.

 The ‘Geo Barents’ is meanwhile carrying 297 survivors. The large number of displaced people were rescued on Friday over three operations, the latest of which involved 100 migrants on an overcrowded and unstable boat.

 "Most of them come from Pakistan," explained NGO Doctors Without Borders. “We are treating people with malnourishment, slight hypothermia, generalised pain, nausea…”

 “Some smelled of fuel, we are evaluating any burns among our survivors, ”said Kira Smith, nurse and midwife aboard the Geo Barents.

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