Italy’s navy rescued more than 1,100 asylum seekers from inflatable boats in the space of just 24 hours.  The immigrants included 47 women, at least four of them pregnant, and 50 children.  And they’re expecting the volume of immigrants to grow when Spring comes to the Mediterranean.

All of the asylum seekers were from sub-Saharan Africa – rescued as part of the Italian policy of using warships, amphibious vessels and aircraft to try to prevent any more tragedies like the two shipwrecks in October in which more than 400 people died.  None of these boats were turned back without food.  None suffered burned hands for the transgression of trying to go to the toilet. 

Authorities will eventually assess each to see if they have legitimate grounds for claiming asylum.  But the likelihood is that most will not get to stay in Europe.  Three out of four asylum applications in EU states were rejected in 2012.

But Italy is not the only destination for people trying to escape miserable circumstances in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.  Six men and one woman were found drowned and washed up on the beach in Morocco, failing to make their apparent destination, the Spanish enclave of Ceuta in North Africa.