Almost 1,200 migrants arrived on Italian coasts on Monday after being rescued in several operations in the Mediterranean.
Most arrived in Palermo, where some 738 migrants arrived on the Doctors without Borders (MSF) Vos Prudence ship. Among them were 596 men and 89 women, 30 of whom are pregnant, as well as 53 unaccompanied minors. There was also a corpse of a migrant that died in the Strait of Sicily onboard the ship.
The migrants will be transferred to centers in other regions.
356 migrants and 8 corpses in Catania
A total of 356 migrants arrived in Catania on a Swedish ship that belongs to the EU border and coast guard agency Frontex, along with eight corpses of reportedly six women and two men. The migrants have been taken onto land and will be transferred to other regions in Italy. The Italian flying squad has started an investigation to identify any human traffickers among them as well as to search for the cause of the death of the eight victims. A total of 102 migrants were brought by a port authority motorboat to Lampedusa, where Dr Pietro Bartolo - nicknamed the 'migrants' doctor - welcomed them, helped by staff from Misericordia and the Red Cross, the two associations that run the reception center on Lampedusa, where just over 200 migrants are waiting to be transferred.