Italy steps up coastal immigration patrols

Italy is stepping up air and sea patrols off its southern coast of Calabria, Italian Rai-3 TV reported on Saturday night.

The under secretaries at the transport and interior ministries met local government officials in Crotone to review the situation and coordinate further measures, and decided that two helicopters based in Crotone, a plane stationed in Catania, and nine navy vessels are to patrol the Ionian coast of Calabria continuously to check for possible further arrivals of illegal immigrants, the TV said.

The move comes amid mounting concern in Europe after hundreds of Kurdish immigrants arrived on the Italian coast last week.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.