More than 1,000 Migrants Brought Ashore in Italy after Multiple Rescues

Police officers gather as the Diciotti offshore patrol vessel (R) carrying 584 migrants rescued at sea docks at a port in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, 11 March 2023. (EPA)
Police officers gather as the Diciotti offshore patrol vessel (R) carrying 584 migrants rescued at sea docks at a port in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, 11 March 2023. (EPA)
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More than 1,000 Migrants Brought Ashore in Italy after Multiple Rescues

Police officers gather as the Diciotti offshore patrol vessel (R) carrying 584 migrants rescued at sea docks at a port in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, 11 March 2023. (EPA)
Police officers gather as the Diciotti offshore patrol vessel (R) carrying 584 migrants rescued at sea docks at a port in Reggio Calabria, southern Italy, 11 March 2023. (EPA)

More than 1,000 migrants were brought ashore to southern Italy on Saturday after coastguards launched major rescue operations for three boats struggling in rough seas off Calabria.

One coastguard vessel brought 584 people to the city of Reggio Calabria, while another escorted a packed fishing boat carrying 487 migrants into the port of Crotone, close to the scene of a Feb. 26 shipwreck that killed at least 74 people.

Local officials said a further 200 migrants had been picked up off the coast of Sicily and would be ferried to Catania later in the day.

More than 4,000 people have reached Italy since Wednesday, compared to around 1,300 for the whole of March last year, as the country's conservative government struggles to contain the influx, despite repeated promises to stem the flow.

The coastguard dispatched eight boats on Friday to various rescue operations, while a naval patrol boat was also called in to prevent any repeat of last month's disaster, when a migrant ship broke apart a stone's throw from the Calabrian coast.

The body of a young girl was recovered on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 74. Seventy-nine people survived the shipwreck, but around 30 are still missing, presumed dead.

Prosecutors are investigating whether Italian authorities should have done more to prevent the disaster. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has rejected the suggestion and looked to pin the blame entirely on human traffickers.

Her cabinet on Thursday introduced tougher jail terms for people smugglers and promised to open up more channels for legal migration. Late last year, it cracked down on charity rescue boats, accusing them of acting as a taxi service for migrants.

The measure has led to a sharp reduction in the number of rescue ships patrolling off North Africa, where the majority of the migrants set sail.

However, departures have nonetheless picked up dramatically, with roughly 17,000 migrants reaching Italy by boat so far this year against some 6,000 in the same period of 2022.



UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
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UN Says 14 Million Children Did Not Receive a Single Vaccine in 2024

A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)
A mother holds her baby receiving a new malaria vaccine as part of a trial at the Walter Reed Project Research Center in Kombewa in Western Kenya on Oct. 30, 2009. (AP)

More than 14 million children did not receive a single vaccine last year — about the same number as the year before — according to UN health officials. Nine countries accounted for more than half of those unprotected children.

In their annual estimate of global vaccine coverage, released Tuesday, the World Health Organization and UNICEF said about 89% of children under one year old got a first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine in 2024, the same as in 2023. About 85% completed the three-dose series, up from 84% in 2023.

Officials acknowledged, however, that the collapse of international aid this year will make it more difficult to reduce the number of unprotected children.

In January, US President Trump withdrew the country from the WHO, froze nearly all humanitarian aid and later moved to close the US AID Agency. And last month, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said it was pulling the billions of dollars the US had previously pledged to the vaccines alliance Gavi, saying the group had “ignored the science.”

Kennedy, a longtime vaccine skeptic, has previously raised questions the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, which has proven to be safe and effective after years of study and real-world use. Vaccines prevent 3.5 million to 5 million deaths a year, according to UN estimates.

“Drastic cuts in aid, coupled with misinformation about the safety of vaccines, threaten to unwind decades of progress,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

UN experts said that access to vaccines remained “deeply unequal” and that conflict and humanitarian crises quickly unraveled progress; Sudan had the lowest reported coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough.

The data showed that nine countries accounted for 52% of all children who missed out on immunizations entirely: Nigeria, India, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Angola.

WHO and UNICEF said that coverage against measles rose slightly, with 76% of children worldwide receiving both vaccine doses. But experts say measles vaccine rates need to reach 95% to prevent outbreaks of the extremely contagious disease. WHO noted that 60 countries reported big measles outbreaks last year.

The US is now having its worst measles outbreak in more than three decades, while the disease has also surged across Europe, with 125,000 cases in 2024 — twice as many as the previous year, according to WHO.

Last week, British authorities reported a child died of measles in a Liverpool hospital. Health officials said that despite years of efforts to raise awareness, only about 84% of children in the UK are protected.

“It is hugely concerning, but not at all surprising, that we are continuing to see outbreaks of measles,” said Helen Bradford, a professor of children’s health at University College London.

“The only way to stop measles spreading is with vaccination,” she said in a statement. “It is never too late to be vaccinated — even as an adult.”