Rome, Nov 9 (IANS/AKI): Libya's Coast Guard intercepted an inflatable boat in the Mediterranean with around 70 migrants on board, Italy's hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has said.
"The Libyan Coast Guard picked up some 70 people aboard a rubber boat off (the port of) Al-Khoms on Wednesday," Salvini wrote on Facebook on Thursday.
"The party's over for human traffickers, #Stop the invasion!" the post went on. On Wednesday, Salvini tweeted that Libya's Coast Guard had intercepted 315 migrants in the Mediterranean aboard three inflatable boats and transferred them to detention centres in the North African country.
Backed by the European Union, Libya's Coast Guard has stepped up its patrols in the Mediterranean, intercepting over 14,000 migrants between January and October, according to the UN migration agency IOM.