Amnesty International: Migrant rescue mission must extend closer to Libya.

Catania, 26 April 2015(Lana) European efforts to save the lives of migrants drowning in the Mediterranean must involve search and rescue operations near the shores of Libya, Amnesty International said on Saturday. We only see that mission patrolling right around the borders of Italy. But all these boats that we have seen go down have been going down further afield, so closer to Libya, and these boats are simply not reaching that area," said Amnesty International's deputy manager for Europe, Gauri Van Gulik. Van Gulik said the rescue process posed its own dangers and many of the merchant vessels directed by the coastguard to help boats in difficulty lacked the right equipment and training to carry out safe rescues. Even though it is heroic, of course, what they are doing, this is causing boats to capsize because, for example, there is panic on board, and it is causing a lot of the deaths that we are seeing," she said in the Sicilian port city of Catania. The Amnesty International call came as hundreds of migrants arrived in Italy from North Africa, and the Italian coast guard said late on Friday, they have rescued 228 in two operations 40 miles off the Libyan coast and coordinated the rescue of 80 others from a fishing boat in the Tunisian waters. =Lana=