The Italian Navy and Coastguards say around 3,300 migrants will arrive in Sicily over the course of Saturday after being rescued at sea south of the island.<br /><br />Navy officials released a video showing 450 people being transferred from a rickety boat to a patrol vessel, then on to the Naval Vessel Libra.<br /><br />According to the Italian government, 90 percent of the migrants currently in Italy came across from Libya, considered a “gateway to Europe”.<br /><br />Authorities report most of those seen on the boats in the video are of Syrian origin, with ten percent said to be children.<br /><br />At over 43,000 the amount of migrants to reach Italy in the first five months of 2014 has already equalled the figure for 2013.<br /><br />Five Italian vessels are involved in an operation called Mare Nostrum, or “our sea”, aimed at fighting human smuggling.<br /><br />The mission has been ongoing since 366 men, women and children drowned in a shipwreck off the coast of Lampedusa in October 2013.
