An Italian merchant vessel Saturday rescued 26 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya, while others are feared missing, Reuters reported.
The Coast Guard said it received a call from a satellite phone on Friday, but were unable to speak with the caller. The signal was tracked to a location about seven miles off the Libyan coast.
The ship was diverted Friday night and rescued 26 people from a rubber boat that was taking on water.
The Coast Guard spokesman added that the boats used by human traffickers usually hold between 100-120 people, but had no information about the number of people who might be missing.
The rescued migrants were then transferred to a Coast Guard ship and taken to Lampedusa, the Italian island south of Sicily that has seen tens of thousands of migrant and refugee arrivals in th last few years.
With the migration routes via the Balkan countries and the sea crossing between Turkey and Greece effectively closed, European officials expect migrants to attempt the far more dangerous crossing between Libya and Italy.
