Theresa Maggio

With the good weather more and more rubber rafts and big old fishing boats full of desperate immigrants take off from Libyan shores to tackle the crossing to Sicily. Here is a photo tweeted by a volunteer on the rescue ship Aquarios operated by the group SOS Mediterrane`. The rescue ships had already taken aboard 230 immigrants off the coast of Libya in two distinct operations coordinated by the Italian Coast Guard. The first intervention was by the ship Spica of the Italian Navy which aided a raft with 114 immigrants aboard. The Aquarios, a non governmental ship with volunteers aboard has rescued 119 persons this morning from another raft. Among the rescued were three women and 41 children. Photo story in today's La Repubblica.