Post date: Dec 18, 2013 12:29:29 PM
A Europe-bound flow of seaborne migrants continues with Italy's navy rescuing 110 migrants and recovering one corpse as a video of migrants sprayed for scabies in Lampedusa stirs outrage.
AT SEA (DECEMBER 17, 2013) (MARINA MILITARE HANDOUT) - As a video of migrants being sprayed for scabies at a holding centre in Lampedusa stirred outrage in Italy, a group of 110 migrants were rescued on Tuesday (December 17) at sea near the southern Sicilian island on Tuesday, the Italian navy said.
Their small, overcrowded dinghy, lacking any safety equipment, had been spotted at sea by a navyhelicopter.One body was found among the migrants originating from Ghana, Mali, Togo, Gambia andPakistan, the navy said in a statement.
A navy ship recovered the migrants from the rubber raft and is taking them to Porto Empedocle inSicily, the navy said.
The rescue operation came as a video showing migrants standing naked in the cold while being sprayed for scabies stirred outrage in Italy on Tuesday and underscored what many have criticised as the European Union's failure to tackle its immigration crisis humanely.
State television station RAI 2 showed the video, which it said was shot by a migrant with a cell phone, late on Monday (December 16). It shows young boys and men being told, with voice and gestures, to strip naked outdoors so they can be sprayed for mites.
RAI 2 interviewed one of the migrants, identified only as Khalid, who said they were lined up and treated "like animals".
The mayor of Lampedusa, Giusi Nicolini, said the video made the centre look like a "concentration camp" and that Italy should be "ashamed" of its treatment of migrants. The Interior Ministry said it was investigating the matter.
The video was shot in the immigration centre on the island of Lampedusa, RAI 2 and Khalid said. In October, Lampedusa was the scene of one of the worst disasters in the two-decade long EU immigration crisis when a boat sank near shore, drowning at least 366 people.