About 6,800 migrants rescued from boats off the coast of Libya over the weekend arrived Italy on Monday, with one woman delivered of a baby aboard.
The migration, which raised concerns in many African and European countries, is finally going to rest as rescue efforts have seen the 6,800 arrive the Italian port of Pozzallo.
According to coastguard officials, the development comes as part of European coastguard agencies’ biggest rescue operation this year.
Aljazeera reports that the migrants are going through a rigorous one-by-one medical check-up to ensure that people do not carry transmittable diseases into the country.
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It said only about five out of 900 people who arrived on Sunday night had been allowed to disembark during the night, as others including women with young children, were still undergoing screening.
On April 19, 2015, about 700 migrants trying to escape to Europe drowned in the Mediterranean when the fishing boat conveying them capsized off Libya coast on Sunday.
This drove the agenda of the European Union meeting held a few days after, as the countries involved attempted to halt the situation before it escalated beyond what it was.
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According to Reuters, seven bodies were found on two large rubber boats packed with migrants and rescuers plucked from the sea the corpses of three others who had jumped into the water when they saw a merchant ship approaching.
An Italian court investigating migrants says a boatload of migrants fetch the smugglers N18 million ($90,000).
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