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Sicily

13 migrating women drown, 8 children missing during sea rescue operation

Lampedusa in the immigration news again now that ships are again allowed to land immigrants. This is from The Guardian:

At least 13 women have died and eight children are missing after a boat capsized in rough seas off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Sunday night as a patrol vessel attempted to save it.

Italian authorities have rescued 22 survivors from the boat, which was carrying about 50 people. Only four of the 13 recovered bodies have been identified by surviving family members, including that of a 12-year-old girl.

According to an initial reconstruction of events, all the people onboard moved to one end of the vessel as the rescue boat arrived, causing it to overturn. The boat, carrying mostly people from sub-Saharan Africa, had initially left Libya before sailing along the coast to reach the city of Sfax, in Tunisia, where another 15 people boarded before they continued their journey to Sicily, according to survivors.

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Fuocoammare (Fire at Sea) trailer



For more info about the prizewinning film, the first time a full-length feature documentary has won top honors in Berlin, please cut and paste into your address line:
http://www.dw.com/en/berlinale-golden-bear-for-italian-refugee-documentary-fuocoammare/a-19063227
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As Gianfranco Rosi collects Golden Bear, 943 more African immigrants rescued at sea

While documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi was celebrating his win in Berlin for his documentary Fuocoammare ( Fire at Sea) about the people of Lampedusa accepting and caring for African immigrants, nearly a thousand more immigrants were arriving on the island's shores.
It was a weekend of life saving at sea off the coast of Libya, according to La Repubblica  Read More 
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Lampedusa's Palermo home renovated, now apartments

Italy's greatest 20th-century writer Giuseppe Lampedusa's house in Palermo is once again a home, for six families. It has been made into apartments. Here is a video report from La Repubblica:
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402 immigrants arrived Lampedusa yesterday

Last night 402 immigrants arrived at Lampedusa, a Sicilian island, the part of Europe closest to north Africa, aboard a the Coast Guard boat which rescued them. They were Somalis, Eritreans, and Syrians.
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118 saved from rubber raft off Libyan coast

118 migrants were rescued from the rubber dinghy by the Doctors Without Borders ship Dignity at 38 nautical miles off the coast of Libya.
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New York Times photo essay

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/28/world/africa/libya-migrants-mediterranean.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news#
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1500 immigrants saved at sea in one day

Five overloaded, unseaworthy ex-fishing boats loaded with would-be immigrants were saved from danger near the Libyan shores . The Italian Navy had received a distress call via satellite phone warning that three boats were in need of rescue. The ships sent found five boats full of people and rescued all of them, taking them to Lampedusa and Porto Empedocle in Sicily. Read More 
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The Sicily of The Leopard

A 38-minute black and white documentary in Italian from 1960, about Sicily.
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"It is a delirium," says mayor of Lampedusa

Two hundred arrivals at Pozzallo yesterday. Another 642 expected to land at Porto Empedocle today. The immigration center at the island of Lampedusa, which had been closed down because of the worst conditions, de-staffed and opened only for emergencies is now back in use, run by a non-profit. They have 250 beds but 1,215 people to house  Read More 
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More than 300 dead

More than 300 dead. The 29 bodies were just those that were recovered. There four gommoni, large rubber rafts, in the worst seas the Italian coast guard had ever seen. The survivors said they were forced to leave Libya at gunpoint. The 29 bodies were PEOPLE WHO HAD BEEN RESCUED off the coast of Libya but died  Read More 
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