Over 600 migrants from Libya arrived in Lampedusa Saturday after being rescued off the tiny island by the Italian coast guard, dpa quoted officials as saying. The migrants were left adrift some 20 nautical miles from Lampedusa after the vessel which was carrying them broke its rudder. The group, including 41 women and seven children, was brought ashore on coast guard patrol boats, the ANSA news agency reported. The joined a group of earlier arrivals - some 347 migrants, also mostly sub-Saharan Africans fleeing from the conflict in Libya. The arrivals followed several landings which took place overnight and which had taken the tally of migrants on Lampedusa to 900. With the exception of around a dozen Tunisians who arrived on a small boat late Friday, most of the migrants are from sub-Saharan Africa, officials said. The arrivals represent a resumption in landings after a week of relative calm in Lampedusa, which in recent months has experienced overcrowding due to migrant landings.
