700 African migrants intercepted off Italian coast

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Three boats with about 700 African migrants onboard have been intercepted off Lampedusa island in southern Italy, local reports said on Thursday.

The boats were sighted 315 km from the Italian coast by a police patrol aircraft which was flying over the area, according to Adnkronos news agency.

A navy ship of the Italian government’s “Mare Nostrum (Our Sea)” search-and-rescue mission was on the way to the signaled waters, Adnkronos added.

A day earlier, two other navy ships carrying over 2,000 migrants arrived at the southern ports of Reggio Calabria and Trapani, the latest of a string of arrivals.

The migration inflow has been increasing in recent times towards Italy, which is seen as one of the main gates to get into Europe.

Some 66,000 people have reached Italy by sea between January and June, according to Italian Interior Ministry and United Nations estimates.

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