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17 bodies found, 1,128 migrants rescued from Mediterranean

ROME — Rescue boats recovered the bodies of 17 migrants and plucked 1,128 survivors from the Mediterranean Sea south of Sicily on Thursday, a day after 22 bodies were found at the bottom of a smugglers’ boat.

The Italian coast guard, which coordinated Thursday’s rescues, said the operation took on survivors from five rubber motorized dinghies, a larger boat, and two small boats.

Those rescues took place as a separate vessel was bringing the bodies of the 17 discovered a day earlier toward Sicily.

The humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders, meanwhile, said the bodies of 21 women and one man were found in a pool of fuel at the bottom of another smugglers’ boat. That same rescue effort saved 209 people who were aboard two rubber dinghies.

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Vessels from nongovernment organizations and national military fleets and passing cargo ships have been rescuing migrants daily from unseaworthy smuggling boats launched from Libya.

Associated Press