At midnight the Icelandic coast
guard vessel ICGV Týr, which is deployed in Frontex-coordinated joint
operation Triton, brought the cargo vessel Ezadeen with 360 migrants on board to the southern Italian port of Corigliano Calabro. Although earlier estimates said there were 450 migrants on board the ship in fact carried 360 migrants.
This
completed a rescue operation coordinated by the Italian Guardia Costiera
that lasted over 24 hours. The Syrian migrants on board Ezadeen, a
73-metre freighter, apparently departed from Turkey several days ago. There were over 40 women and some 70 children on board.
People smugglers began using cargo vessels like Ezedeen last
summer, and it has now become a new method of bringing migrants to
Europe. These decommissioned freighters, up to 75-metre long, depart from
Turkey and head for the Italian cost. Some 15 incidents involving cargo
ships have taken place since August 2014.