Theresa Maggio

Along with the thousands of decent people who risk their lives to get to Europe by boat or raft come a small number of Nigerian criminals. In Palermo they congregate in the Ballaro market and co exist with the native Cosa Nostra in an uneasy relationship. Click on the caption to read the story in The Guardian. Read More 

392 migrants landed at Palermo's Four Winds dock today: 464 men, 119 women, 9 children aboard the Doctors without Borders rescue ship Bourbon Argon, which also carried 4 pregnant women and several unaccompanied children.
More than 2500 rescued immigrants will land in southern Italy between today and tomorrow. The Fgs Frankfurt will land at 4 p.m. at Messina, Sicily 514 immigrants  Read More 

The NGO rescue ship Auarius this morning made two rescues of craft in distress in the Mediterranean Sea. The first craft carried 101 immigrants comprising 96 men and 5 women, according to the SOS Mediterranee website. The second craft in distress carried 138 people: 110 men and 28 women. The people taken aboard ship this morning were mostly from the  Read More 

Take a look at their faces. Video by Italian Navy.

Today 96 immigrants were saved by the rescue ship Aquarius: 74 men including numerous minors and 22 women of whom 3 were pregnant, and two children under five. Numerous men were injured and were immediately treated by the onboard medical team of Doctors Without Borders. Today's mission makes a total of 2,002 people saved by the volunteers on the Aquarius.

Click on the caption to read the story in English in The Guardian.

Of the estimated 400 lost at sea from this one incident 40 were children, survivors say. As always, those who could not afford a position on deck were locked in the hold and died trapped there when the boat flipped Thursday. Those people would be the women and children.
One old fishing trawler was towing another with a rope  Read More 

From SOS Mediterranee. Saved from a shipwreck on Wednesday, these African women mostly from Ivory Coast and Cameroon danced and sang hymns aboard the NGO rescue ship Aquarius when the coast of Sardinia, where they were being taken, came  Read More 

A converted fishing traler overloaded with immigrants partially sank today in the Mediterranean between Africa and Sicily. T Italian Navy ship Vega saved 135 people, recuperated 45 bodies and rescuers are searching for at least 20 people still missing at sea.
Eighteen rescue operations took place today. Some 1,900 people were aboard 16 rubber rafts, all rescued. Several hundred  Read More 

Baby Favour, newly orphaned immigrant from Nigeria, saved from a shipwreck by a woman from Cameroon who watched the baby's mother drown, a burn victim who was drowning herself, was met by the mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando when she arrived in the Sicilian capital accompanied by the chief of police, Maria Volpe. The  Read More