Decrepit smuggling boat with 539 migrants nears Italy

ROME (AP) — Italian military vessels have aided a decrepit fishing boat crammed with 539 migrants aboard, which was approaching the tiny southern island of Lampedusa south of Sicily. Alida Serrachieri,  a nurse who runs the Doctors Without Borders’ operation on Lampedusa, said the passengers included three women and several unaccompanied minors. Two coast guard vessels and a customs boat ferried them ashore in small groups. Serrachieri said she didn’t know how long the fishing boat was at sea after being launched from Libyan shores. She said the migrants had spent weeks or months in Libya awaiting to leave in traffickers’ boats in hopes of reaching Europe, and at least 20 had torture scars.