Italian police at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo on Wednesday (August 31) arrested two people on suspicion of human trafficking.
The men of African origin were led away in handcuffs from an Italian naval ship carrying hundreds of migrants, who had been rescued at sea.
Some 689 migrants, including 31 minors and several newly born babies, arrived at the port after being plucked from the sea on Monday (August 29).
“The large numbers of boats that were present and migrants who were in difficulty, made it necessary for us to act quickly. So we immediately put to sea our smaller vessels in order to hand out individual life vests to each migrant and then bring them on board,” Lieutenant Sergio Savastano, who had taken part in the rescues, said.
Some 6,500 migrants were saved off the Libyan coast in 40 separate rescue missions on Monday, in one of the largest influxes of refugees in a single day.
Italy has been on the front line of Europe’s migrant crisis for three years, and more than 400,000 have successfully made the voyage to Italy from North Africa since the beginning of 2014, fleeing violence and poverty.
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