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A patrol boat from the Maltese Armed Forces recovered 216 migrants and refugees from two dinghies in the Mediterranean and brought them to Malta on Saturday, a spokesman said.
At least one pregnant woman and several children were among those rescued. Their nationality was not known.
A spokesman for the Maltese Navy said that a patrol boat had been deployed Friday in a dinghy sinking south of Malta.
The navy said the migrants were on board two boats and the first group was rescued after "sending a distress call telling them their boat was taking water".
After recovering the first group, the boat was redirected to a second dinghy "after receiving another distress call".
The armed forces said that with the favorable climate, departures of migrants from Libya, Tunisia and Algeria had increased over the past two days. 12 boats then arrived in Sicily, Sardinia and Lampedusa.
Scores saved from Italy
At the same time, the Italian authorities reported that they took 54 Pakistanis to a migrant center after finding them aboard a sailboat off Calabria, in the south of the country. Italy.
The Italian news agency ANSA has announced the arrest of two Russian nationals aboard the US-flagged vessel, accused of attempting to smuggle migrants into Italy on Friday night. The agency said the refugees were all men.
The Italian financial police discovered the boat and towed it to Crotone, a port city located on the Ionian Sea, in Calabria. The officials say that the men were in good health.
Malta, which voted Saturday for the parliament of the European Union, has also asked the European Union to help deal with the flow of migrants, as Italy, a neighbor much larger, began to turn away.
The island of 450,000 inhabitants is a common destination for refugees and migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from North Africa, and an uncompromising position on the part of Italy has increased the pressure on the island.
More than 500 migrants have reached Malta this year, while 1,425 have arrived in Italy, whose population is 130 times larger.
Figures from the International Organization for Migration indicate that 24,687 migrants reached Europe this year, well below the record of about one million in 2015 and likely lower than that of 2018 (201,000).
Among the EU Member States, Spain hosted the largest number of migrants last year, with around 65,000 people.
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