Post date: Dec 19, 2013 3:39:56 PM
Video released by the Italian navy shows migrants, wrapped in space blankets, thanking their rescuers with applause and Christmas greetings.
AT SEA (DECEMBER 19, 2013) (MARINA MILITARE HANDOUT) - The Italian navy on Thursday (December 19) released video of migrants rescued at sea breaking into applause and cheers as they waited to be transferred to Sicily.
The 98 migrants, from Mali, Gambia, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Guinea Bissau, were rescued at sea on Wednesday (December 18) and, after a night onboard a navy ship, were transferred onto a coastguard vessel to be taken to Pozzallo in Sicily, the navy said.Wrapped in space blankets, the migrants shouted "Auguri" (Merry Christmas in Italian), "Thank you, captain" and "Thank you, friend," as they waited for the vessel to depart.
The flow of seaborne migrants continues despite the colder winter weather near the southern Italian island of Lampedusa. The navy also released video of another group of migrants rescued at sea on Wednesday being transferred onto a navy ship.
The new arrivals come as a video showing migrants standing naked in the cold while being sprayed for scabies at a detention centre stirred outrage in Italy on Tuesday (December 17).
Hundreds of people have died in recent months as refugees seek to enter the European Union by boat through Lampedusa, putting the EU's migration policies in the spotlight.
EU leaders are due to discuss migration at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday (December 20), in response to the high number of in-bound migrants drowning in recent months.