Dozens saved by Italy from migrant shipwrecks; some, clinging to rocks, plucked to safety by copters

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Italy as they foundered in the sea or clung to a rocky reef Sunday after three boats launched by smugglers from northern Africa shipwrecked in rough waters in separate incidents over the weekend. Survivors said some 30 fellow migrants were missing from capsized vessels. In a particularly risky operation, two helicopters battled strong winds to pluck to safety, one by one, the migrants, including a child and two pregnant women, who had been stranded for nearly two days on a steep, rocky reef of tiny Lampedusa island.

The migrants had been clinging to the jagged rocks after their boat smashed into the reef late Friday. For years, migrants have taken to smugglers' unseaworthy vessels to make the risky crossing of the Mediterranean to try to reach southern European shores in hopes of being granted asylum or finding family or jobs, especially in northern European countries. All 34 migrants who endured two nights on the reef were rescued, said Federico Catania, a spokesperson for the Alpine assistance group whose experts were lowered from a hovering Italian air force helicopter.

Migrants, some wearing shorts and flip-flops, clung to their rescuers as they were pulled up into the copter. A firefighters' helicopter also carried out some of the rescues. The two women, including one in an advanced stage of pregnancy, were examined by medical personnel, said Maria Ylenia Di Paola, a nurse on Lampedusa.