Italy coastguard: 3,000 migrants rescued in one day in Mediterranean

No casualties reported as Italy reports navy ships, patrol boats and other vessels picked up migrants crammed aboard various craft off the Libyan coast

Italy’s coastguard has successfully coordinated the rescue of about 3,000 migrants in the Mediterranean, after receiving distress calls from more than 20 overcrowded vessels drifting in waters off Libya.

One of the biggest single-day rescue operations to date appeared to have been concluded on Saturday without any reports of casualties.

Two navy ships, the Cigala Fulgosi and the Vega, picked up 507 and 432 migrants respectively from two wooden boats in danger of sinking just off Libya, said the navy.

The coastguard said its patrol boats had boarded a total of just less than 1,000 people from various unseaworthy fishing boats and inflatables that had left Libya overnight on Friday-Saturday.

At least another 1,000 rescued migrants and refugees were reported to be headed for Italian ports on other boats as the wave of new arrivals triggered increasingly virulent attacks on centre-left prime minister Matteo Renzi’s handling of the migration crisis.

“This must [be] a joke. We are using our own forces to do the people smugglers’ business for them and ensure we are invaded,” said Maurizio Gasparri, a senator for Silvio Berlusconi’s centre-right Forza Italia party.

Matteo Salvini, leader of the anti-immigration Northern League, called on the government to park the migrants on disused Italian oil rigs off Libya.

“Help them, rescue them and take care of them: but don’t let them land here,” wrote Salvini on his Facebook page.

The rescued migrants included 311, with a newborn baby, who were on a boat belonging to humanitarian group Médecins Sans Frontières that was expected to dock on Monday in Vibo Valentia in Calabria, according to port authorities there.

A further 370 had been picked up by the Italian customs police and were headed for Messina in Sicily, while the Norwegian boat Siem Pilot was also carrying hundreds of people to port.

Just over 170,000 migrants and refugees from Africa, the Middle East and south Asia landed at Italy’s southern ports in 2014 after being rescued in the Mediterranean, while the total for 2015 has already topped 104,000.

A further 135,000-plus have landed in Greece since January, and more than 2,300 people have died at sea while trying to make it to Europe with the help of traffickers.

Police in Palermo, Sicily, announced on Saturday that they arrested six Egyptian nationals on suspicion of people-smuggling following the rescue of a stricken boat on 19 August.

Testimony from the 432 migrants on board suggested the vessel had been packed with more than 10 times the number of people it was designed for, with many of the passengers, including a number of women and children, locked below decks.

They had each paid the traffickers €2,000 (£1,450) for the passage from Egypt toItaly, according to statements given to police.

On board, the crew were reported to have demanded further payment to allow those locked in the hold to come up temporarily for air.

Humanitarian organisations have called on European governments to shoulder more of the burden of absorbing the waves of asylum-seeking migrants and to help create safer routes for them to reach Europe.

ISIL and Peshmerga forces battle for ground near Kirkuk

Kurdish Peshmerga forces reclaim village hours after ISIL fighters seized it during clashes near oil-rich Iraqi city

Kurdish Peshmerga forces have recaptured a village from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), hours after the armed group seized control of it during deadly clashes, sources told Al Jazeera.

Peshmerga forces were able to take back al-Murra village from ISIL fighters on Monday morning, after hours of clashes just 25km south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Al Jazeera's Jane Arraf, reporting from Baghdad, said ISIL moved in with multiple suicide car bombs, followed by a more sustained attack, but the Peshmerga were able to recapture the village.

"According to Peshmerga General Sarhed Qader, the ISIL offensive began at 1am local time from three directions [the al-Shaheed compound, Miriam Beeq and Murra]," she said.

"ISIL was repelled from the first two directions but managed to take the village of Murra.

"They were driven out after [US-led] coalition aircraft launched air strikes. Police commanders say Peshmerga and police forces took back the village at 6am local time."

Three ISIL tanks were destroyed by the Peshmerga, sources told Al Jazeera.

ISIL also tried to attack Wadi Naft which is southwest of Kirkuk using a suicide car bomber. 

The Kurdish Peshmerga took control of Kirkuk last year shortly after ISIL captured Mosul from the Iraqi army. Since then they have fought some of their fiercest battles against ISIL south of the city.

Dozens killed in air strikes

Elsewhere in Iraq, at least 24 people, including women and children, were reportedly killed when Iraqi forces launched air strikes and rocket attacks overnight in Anbar province, in the areas of al-Bushijel, al-Saghrit, al-Shuhada, and al-Saglawiya, sources in Fallujah hospital said.

More than 50 others were injured in the attack. The Fallujah hospital is under ISIL control.

Anbar security sources said that Iraqi security forces have retaken the strategic al-Yabani bridge north of Ramadi near Saglawiya. At least 14 ISIL fighters have been reportedly killed.

Sources told Al Jazeera that five suicide car bombs attacked the Nadhem al-Taqsim base 15km northeast of Fallujah on Sunday afternoon.

Another suicide attack was also reportedly carried out on the Haditha dam, 160km west of Ramadi, killing at least two soldiers and injuring three others, according to Iraqi Army general Ali Dabuun. 

Source: Al Jazeera

Peter Dutton: Jordan refugee camp visit 'reinforces belief' in tough border policy

Immigration minister tours world’s second-largest refugee camp, Zaatari, and gives Jordan credit for welcoming more than 600,000 Syrian refugees





The immigration minister, Peter Dutton, has vowed to uphold Australia’s tough border protection policies, saying his “confronting” visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Jordan has reinforced his belief in the government’s hardline policies.


Dutton toured the world’s second-largest refugee camp, Zaatari, on Monday, and gave credit to the country for opening their arms to more than 600,000 Syrian refugees.

But he said the trip only reinforced the federal government’s policy of turning back boats, saying it allowed Australia to increase its humanitarian intake from offshore.

“The lesson of today reinforces that we have made the right decision.”

“The fact we have a tough border policy in Australia means that we can offer a helping hand,” he told the ABC.

Dutton said the scenes at Zaatari, home to more than 80,000 refugees, were “confronting, to say the least”.

“The scenes of children, innocent victims of war, really pull at your heartstrings.

“The fact that the Jordanians here on the border open their arms up not only to the refugees but also to those people who are seriously injured is a great credit to this country.”

UN officials briefed Dutton on its operations to care for Syrian refugees.

Agencies are perilously short of money: the World Food Program has cut in half its food aid to hundreds of thousands of refugees because of lack of funds.

The UN estimates it needs US$3.8bn a year to care for 4 million refugees seeking safety in the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. So far they have received only half of the required money.

Australia spends $1bn – US$713m – a year on its offshore detention regime alone, and more than $3bn (US$2.15bn) on immigration detention more broadly, which houses 1,500 people.

Dutton was also briefed by the UNHCR on how Australia would decide which 12,000 Syrian refugees to resettle as part of its expanded humanitarian program.


He told Fairfax the chance to grant visas to four families – two from Syria and two from Iraq – was “one of the best days” of his time in the portfolio.

And Dutton said if the current expanded intake was a success, he would consider further extensions to the humanitarian program.

It is expected the first group of refugees selected from Middle East camps will arrive before Christmas.

But Labor has accused the federal government of a breach of faith by not doing enough to quickly bring Syrian refugees to Australia.


Responding to reports that only a small number of refugees would be in Australia by the end of the year, immigration spokesman Richard Marles criticised the government for dragging its feet.


“They said they would be doing this as soon as possible with significant numbers coming before Christmas,” Marles told reporters in the Marshall Islands.

“The fact that a negligible number would be here by the end of the year [is] a breach of faith.”


Labor believes the government was dragged kicking and screaming to offer 12,000 humanitarian spots over four years for refugees escaping the Syrian crisis.


Marles conceded security checks were necessary but said advanced biometric screening undertaken at the United Nations-run refugee camp in Jordan should make the process quicker.


“We’ve got an emergency going on in Syria,” he said.


“The notion that it’s going to take months and months to do that due diligence is simply wrong.”