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An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/italy-co...-by-smugglers/


2nd migrant-packed ship abandoned near Italy

Grainy handout video taken from an Italian Coast Guard helicopter shows personnel being lowered onto the cargo ship Ezadeen, as it sails with no crew carrying hundreds of migrants, Jan. 2, 2015. ITALIAN COAST GUARD

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ROME -- An Icelandic Coast Guard ship was towing a cargo vessel to Italy with about 450 migrants who were abandoned by smugglers, leaving the vessel navigating without a crew, authorities said.

Italian Coast Guard Cmdr. Filippo Marini said Friday that after several hours of struggling in rough seas, rescue teams managed to secure the Ezadeen for towing toward the southern Calabrian region. The Icelandic ship, part of a new European patrol force to aid migrants at sea, was doing the tow.

Children and pregnant women were among the migrants, most of whom were believed to be Syrian, said Marini. The Sierra-Leone-flagged cargo ship apparently set sail from Turkey, he said.

The exact port of the Ezadeen's arrival will depend on sea conditions, authorities aid.

Earlier on Friday, Marini said that a migrant had called for help saying: "we're without crew, we're heading toward the Italian coast and we have no one to steer."


Play VIDEO
Freighter carrying hundreds of migrants arrives at port safely
The Ezadeen is the second cargo ship full of migrants to be abandoned while still sailing this week. The Italian Coast Guard lowered personnel onto a Moldovan-flagged cargo vessel early Wednesday morning so they could take control of the ship, which was only a few miles from crashing into the Italian coast with almost 1,000 migrants on board.

More than 170,000 migrants were intercepted or needed rescue by Italian navy, coast guard and air force patrols last year. This apparently new technique by smugglers of abandoning a ship after setting it on a crash course complicates rescue efforts, Marini told Italian state radio, "but the important thing is there are lives to be saved."

In October 2013, a fishing vessel crammed with almost 400 would-be migrants caught fire and capsized near the town of Lampedusa. A Somali man believed to be the organizer of the ill-fated smuggling voyage was arrested shortly after the tragedy, which left more than 365 people dead.


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