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People traffickers 'made $3.8m' on ship to Italy

Italian police believe people traffickers made about $3.8m from 359 illegal migrants found abandoned on a cargo ship in the Mediterranean. The Ezadeen, an ageing Sierra Leone-flagged ship originally used to transport cattle, was towed into the Italian port of Corigliano Calabro after being found by coast guards on Friday night. Most of those aboard appear to be Syrians, in the second such case involving a freighter this week. Both ships reportedly started in Turkey, in a change from the Libyan route usually favoured by gangs, the BBC reports. The police chief of Cosenza province, Luigi Liguori, said each migrant had paid between $4,000 and $8,000 to board the ship.

360 migrants leave 'ghost ship' off Italy

Italian authorities disembarked some 360 cold and hungry migrants from a "ghost ship" on Saturday which had been abandoned by its crew off the country's jagged southern coast. Women and children were among hundreds of migrants left stranded aboard the Ezadeen, which docked in the port of Corigliano Calabro at around 11pm on Friday after a delicate operation by the Italian navy to take control of the ageing vessel. It had been left to drift in stormy seas without fuel or electricity, and in the dark rescuers had first thought that it could be holding up to 450 people. But after docking the authorities revised the count to 232 men, 54 women and 74 children aboard, most of whom are thought to be Syrians fleeing the war in their homeland. All were said to be in good health. Six coastguard officers were lowered from a helicopter onto the deck of the Sierra Leone-flagged vessel on Friday to set up a tow for the 40km to the Italian coast. The rescue is the latest in a series of maritime operations Italy has mounted in recent days as it struggles with a record wave of migrants making the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean. On Wednesday, the navy faced more drama after it stopped another crewless "ghost" ship left drifting in its waters with nearly 800 migrants on board. The appearance of the two drifting boats full of migrants within a matter of days has raised concerns that smugglers have started abandoning large boats full of people off the coast of Europe as a new tactic to maximise profits from their ruthless trade. The Ezadeen, which usually carries cattle, had been en route from Famagusta in northern Turkish-controlled Cyprus to the southern French port of Sete, but had first stopped at the Syrian port of Tartus, according to a shipping website. http://www.enca.com/world/360-migrants-leave-italy-migrant-ghost-ship

'Ghost ship' migrants arrive safely in Italy

The migrant ship Ezadeen, abandoned by human traffickers, has arrived in the southern Italian port of Corigiliano Calabro. Some 450 passengers were relieved to disembark the vessel after being stranded on board. ccording to Italian media, most of the migrants found on the 73-metre-long (240-foot-long) "ghost ship" were from Syria, where millions of people have been displaced by nearly four years of civil war. Shortly before 11 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) Italy's coastguard tweeted to confirm that the Sierra Leone-flagged Ezadeen had docked at Corigliano Calabro. Italian sailors managed to take control of the crewless merchant ship earlier on Friday after six coastguards were lowered onto the ship's deck to set up a tow for the 40 kilometers (25 miles) to the Italian coast. The Icelandic ship Tyr, which has been working as part of a new European patrol force to detect and aid migrants at sea, then towed the ship to shore.