Italy Rescues 1,500 Migrants in 24 Hours

In less than 24 hours, Italian navy and coast guard ships rescued roughly 1,500 migrants on board five boats in the southern Mediterranean on Saturday. Three of the boats were in trouble and had sent rescue requests by phone while off the coast of Libya. The migrants have all been transported to the island of Lampedusa or other ports in Sicily. In the last year, roughly 170,000 migrants have entered Europe through Italy by way of boats organized by human traffickers. More than 3,000 have died.