More than 230 migrants were rescued off the coast of southern Italy, authorities said Saturday, adding that on one occasion they had to use a paddle boat to reach a boat that had run aground near a tourist beach. Italy, along with Malta, copes with tens of thousands of migrant arrivals each year, as people escaping poverty or persecution try to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean, often risking their lives aboard rickety vessels. The stranded boat, carrying around 90 people, including women and children, had got stuck at around 3 am (0100 GMT) some 50 meters from Marchesa di Cassibile - a beach near Sicily's south-eastern tip - in a place that coast guard patrol boats could not reach. Authorities intervened on four other occasions, rescuing in total around 145 passengers from boats that had run into difficulty near Lampedusa, an Italian island halfway between Sicily and Tunisia, near Calabria and in Maltese and Libyan territorial waters. Earlier this month, Pope Francis visited Lampedusa to condemn Western in difference towards the plight of migrants. Italy has strict immigration laws, even if it struggles to enforce them, and repatriates migrants who do not have grounds to claim asylum. The Interior Ministry said Saturday it had carried out 163 repatriations in the past week - mainly against Egyptian, Tunisian and Moroccan nationals.
