ATHENS |
Mon Oct 28, 2013 2:54pm EDT
(Reuters) -
The U.S. navy on Monday sent two guided missile destroyers to help a boat
apparently carrying migrants and in distress off southern Greece.
No details
of the operation were immediately available but a Greek defense official said a
commercial vessel had reported sighting a migrant vessel in international
waters, heading towards Italy, about 116 nautical miles off the coast of
Kalamata.
The sighting
came as southern Europe grapples with a crisis that has seen hundreds of
migrants from Africa drown this month as they attempted to reach the European
Union through southern Italy in rickety boats.
Earlier
this month, 128 migrants were rescued by the USS San Antonio, an amphibious
transport ship, and transferred to Maltese vessels.
"At
the request of the Greek government, USS Gravely and USS Ramage are making best
speed in an effort to render assistance to distressed persons at sea," the
statement by the U.S. naval command said.
The Greek
official denied any request had been made for U.S. assistance.
More than
32,000 migrants have arrived in southern Europe from Africa so far this year,
with refugees from the civil war in Syria adding to migrants from sub-Saharan
Africa looking for a better life in Europe.
The dangers
of the crossing were highlighted in two separate disasters in southern Italy
earlier this month when 366 Eritrean migrants drowned in one disaster and
around 200 were missing after another boat sank just over a week later.
(Reporting
by George Georgiopoulos in Athens and James Mackenzie in Rome; editing by Barry
Moody)
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