Three boats carrying several hundred migrants reached the shores of Malta and southern Italy on Friday and Saturday, dpa quoted ANSA news agency as reporting. A rubber boat carrying around 100 migrants - of whom 24 were women - was intercepted by authorities southeast of Lampedusa island on Saturday, ANSA wrote. The other two boats were sighted late Friday and brought to safety on Malta and the island of Sicily respectively. One fishing boat, brought to the Sicilian harbour town of Pozzallo, contained 84 refugees who said they were from Egypt. A group of 88 Somali migrants rescued off Malta included two babies. The group is believed to have left Libya some days ago. Three women were hospitalized, authorities said. The Maltese army said the migrants' boat was spotted some 30 miles south of the Mediterranean island. Nearly 1,300 asylum seekers have landed in Malta this year, prompting calls for help from the EU's smallest state. Last month, 54 refugees died in the Mediterranean. The refugees had tried to reach Italy from Libya in a rubber dinghy, according to the UN's refugee agency UNHCR. All but one of the Eritrean nationals had died of thirst.
