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Swedish vessel rescues 500 migrants in Mediterranean waters

Xinhua, June 25, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Swedish Coast Guard rescued hundreds of refugees on Mediterranean waters Wednesday before heading back toward Italian shores.

The Swedish vessel Poseidon found 220 migrants on a boat traveling from Libya to Sicily on Tuesday evening, the news agency TT reported. Early Wednesday the Swedish Coast Guard discovered a fishing boat with about 300 migrants on board.

"We got to the fishing boat at night, in the dark. We waited for daylight to transfer them to Poseidon. Therefore I do not have an exact figure on how many there are," Mattias Lindholm, a communications officer at the Coast Guard, was quoted as saying by TT.

On Wednesday Swedish authorities couldn't say if any suspected human traffickers were among the rescued.

"That usually emerges after a while on deck. Then one can observe how people behave to form an understanding," Lindholm said.

The ship requested a port of safety for the over 500 passengers on Wednesday at which it would drop the migrants off in the presence of rescue workers and Italian authorities.

The Poseidon vessel has rescued around 1,150 migrants since it began its Mediterranean mission in early June. Endit