Nearly 100 irregular migrants believed to Egyptians have arrived in
Sicily in two boats.

One large boat, carrying 66 migrants was intercepted overnight
Monday/Tuesday (14-15/2) close to Pozzallo in south-east Sicily.
Ten among them are thought to be minors. Another boat carrying 30
migrants, 26 of them minors, landed nearby in Ragusa also on
Tuesday.

It is unclear where their boats departed from though migrants
are known to leave from and around Dumyatt (Dumietta), east of
Alexandria.

An IOM team in Sicily will be meeting the minors today to define
both their physical and protection needs as well as to provide
legal information on their situation and next steps.

Although there has been much focus on Tunisian migrants arriving
by sea on the Italian island of Lampedusa following recent events
in their country, it is not uncommon for small numbers of Egyptian
irregular migrants to occasionally travel by boat to south east
Sicily.

Meanwhile, Tunisian migrants who had arrived on Lampedusa at the
weekend are gradually being relocated to other migrant reception
centres in Italy.

The centre which is meant to host a maximum of 800 people, has
for the past few days been hosting about 2,000 migrants.

In a bid to help relieve the overcrowding, 200 of the migrants
were transferred from Lampedusa to Foggia on Tuesday.

IOM teams on Lampedusa and in six reception centres in Puglia in
southern Italy working with partners UNHCR and Save the Children,
are providing general legal information to the migrants, the
majority of whom are young men who say they have left Tunisia in
order to find work. However, some of the Tunisian migrants have
told IOM they left because they were afraid, citing insecurity and
danger.

For further information, please contact:

Flavio di Giacomo

IOM Rome

Tel: + 39 06 44 186 207

       +39 347 089 89 96

E-mail: "mailto:fdigiacomo@iom.int">fdigiacomo@iom.int

or

Jemini Pandya

IOM Geneva

Tel: + 41 22 717 9486

Mobile: +41 79 217 3374

E-mail: "mailto:jpandya@iom.int">jpandya@iom.int

or

Jared Bloch

IOM Rome

Tel: + 41 22 717 9405

Mobile: +41 79 812 77 34

E-mail: "mailto:jbloch@iom.int">jbloch@iom.int