About 800 migrants rescued in Mediterranean sea.

Nearly 800 people have been
rescued from boats in distress in
the Mediterranean Sea in the last
48 hours, Italian and Libyan
officials said.
The Italian coastguard said on
Saturday that it rescued at least
520 people from five boats in
Libyan waters late on Thursday, in
response to distress signals from
the boats headed towards Sicily.
An additional 171 people were
also rescued during the overnight
mission in the waters north of
Tripoli.
The Italian navy’s response comes
a day after Libya’s navy
announced it rescued 105 migrants
from a boat that broke down off
the coast of Garabulli, 50km east
of the capital.
This brings the total number of
reported rescues over the weekend
to 796 people. There were no
details on their nationalities.
Greek port authorities also said
that they rescued 16 people when
a boat carrying mostly Syrian
refugees capsized off Mytilene.
In 2013, almost 8,000 people
arrived on European shores in the
first six months, and 35,000 in the
second half of the year. This year,
at least 65,000 people took the
risk in the first half of the year, and
more than 150,000 people have
landed since.
The migrants making the perilious
journey usually hail from poor or
conflict-ridden countries in Africa,
the Middle East and South Asia.