Italy rescues more than 1,200 migrants from smugglers’ boats in Mediterranean

WATCH ABOVE: Footage of Italian navy rescues more than 1,000 migrants.

ROME – Ships from the Italian Coast Guard and navy have rescued more than 1,200 migrants after smugglers’ boats ran into trouble in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya.

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Italian officials say the migrants were being taken Saturday to Italian ports after several different rescue operations, including helping some 200 people aboard motorized rubber dinghies a day earlier south of Sicily. The smugglers’ boats had set out in a spell of warm, calm weather.

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Two weeks earlier, a fishing boat in which smugglers had crammed an estimated 800 people capsized in what is the largest known loss of life in a single boat accident involving migrants trying to reach Italian shores. There were only 28 survivors. The deaths prompted a humanitarian outcry and a European Union pledge to boost rescue efforts.