ROME – An Eritrean woman gave birth to a baby boy on an Italian navy vessel hours after being rescued from the Mediterranean with 430 other migrants, authorities said on Tuesday.
The baby, whose mother was said to be Catholic, was born at around 2 am , weighing around 3 kilogrammes, and was baptized by the on-board chaplain of the Etna auxiliary ship of Italy’s Marina Militare.
The Italian navy said that mother and son were to be transferred by helicopter to the island of Lampedusa later Tuesday.
Italy is scaling down its search-and-rescue activities in the Mediterranean, following the Nov. 1 launch of Triton, a sea patrol operation run by the EU’s border agency Frontex.
On Monday, Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said that Triton had far picked up 3,226 migrants. (dpa/NAN
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