MILAN: The Italian coast guard is carrying out operations to rescue two boats carrying a total of 1,200 people, it said on Monday, after a surge in the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean from North Africa over the weekend.
One of the boats, which is carrying 400 people and is in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Calabria, southern Italy, had previously been sighted in Maltese waters.
Earlier on Monday, German NGO Sea-Watch International, which had located the fishing boat with one of its planes, said one merchant ship in the area had supplied fuel and water to the boat in distress, but Maltese authorities had ordered it not to conduct a rescue.
Early on Sunday, support service Alarm Phone had said the vessel, which departed from Tobruk in Libya, was adrift and taking on water.
The Maltese authorities did not respond to several requests for comment.
The other rescue operation by Italian coast guard on Monday was to help a fishing boat carrying 800 people that was located over 120 miles southeast of Siracusa, in Sicily.
It said in a statement this operation was complicated by the number of people on board.
A spokesperson for coast guard said it would take hours to complete the two ongoing operations because of difficult conditions, including the long distance form the coast.
Before these two operations, the Italian coast guard had already rescued around 2,000 migrants since Friday, it said.

LONDON: The Afghan pilot in the UK at the center of a deportation row is a “special case” for asylum, a former head of the British Army has told The Independent.

The veteran, who traveled to the UK through Europe from Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban takeover in 2021, has been threatened with deportation to Rwanda — a policy that the government claims is targeting economic migrants.

Sir Richard Dannatt warned that policy is unduly overlapping, describing the planned deportation of the pilot as a “flaw.”

He said: “Clearly there is a flaw in evolving British policy. While the pressure is on to reduce small boat crossings, Afghans who have worked with the British, like this pilot, must be a special case.”

The Afghan pilot, who took part in missions against the Taliban alongside Western-led forces, should be made eligible for the UK’s Afghan relocations and assistance policy, or Arap, Dannatt added.

During an investigation by The Independent, it was revealed that the pilot, who was described by his US supervisor as a “patriot to his nation,” was facing deportation as a result of UK Home Office policy.

He was warned that his journey via Europe to the UK could have “consequences for whether your claim is admitted to the UK asylum system,” resulting in his possible deportation to Rwanda in line with new policy targeting small boat arrivals.

Dannatt added: “Those in touch with him must advise him to apply for the Arap scheme and not take no for an answer.

“The Home Office should be passed his details in order to lift him out of the general mass of small boat illegal entrants.”

The pilot said that he has been “forgotten” by Britain, adding: “What safe and legal way was there after the fall of Afghanistan?”

Despite mounting criticism over the pilot’s potential deportation, the UK Home Office has refused to comment on individual cases.

However, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged to “make sure the Home Office has a look” at the case.

Former Conservative Cabinet minister David Davis told The Independent: “We have a moral responsibility to people who are our allies. There must be a mechanism for looking at his case.

“It demonstrates we don’t have a workable policy at the moment. Until you have safe and legal routes it’s hazardous to do what the government is doing.”

A campaign by The Independent newspaper to encourage the granting of asylum for the former pilot has been backed by figures across the political spectrum, as well as charities and military veterans.

Former army captain Mike Crofts, who served two tours in Afghanistan, said: “The government’s abandonment of Afghan soldiers who served the UK cause in Afghanistan is further indictment of a failed approach to immigration.”

He added: “This case only serves to highlight the motivation behind many using boat crossings. The so-called legal routes into the UK exist only in name.”