Italian Coast Guard rescues 400 African migrants on adrift merchant ship

A merchant ship with more than 400 African migrants on board was found adrift and rescued by the Italian Coast Guard on Friday, local media said.

The merchant ship, named Ezadeen and Sierra Leone-flagged, was reportedly reached by an Italian tug boat off Calabria, a region in southern Italy, without crew.

"The merchant ship has been hooked up and rescue operations are being successfully carried out despite the strong wind," a spokesman of the Italian Coast Guard, Filippo Marini, told Rai state television.

He said the more than 400 migrants on board, including some pregnant women and children, were in good health conditions and "calm."

Italian authorities were at work to verify whether the illegal crew ran away or were hidden among the migrants to avoid being arrested, according to la Repubblica national newspaper.

Italy is considered a privileged gate to Europe by African and Middle Eastern migrants escaping from their troubled countries.

Following thousand deaths at sea, the Italian government last year launched a search-and-rescue operation named Mare Nostrum which was replaced in November by the Triton operation of the European union   (EU) Frontex border patrol agency.

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