More than 400 migrants land at Lampedusa

More than 400 immigrants, including women and children, landed on the southern Italian island of Lampedusa overnight. The migrants, believed to be from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, arrived on two boats that are believed to have left from the Libyan coast. One boat, which had 24 women and a child aboard, was intercepted by Italian police 15 nautical miles from Lampedusa and escorted to the port. Soon after, a second boat carrying 253 people including 35 women and two children arrived. Around 30,000 migrants, who mostly departed from Tunisia and Libya, have arrived in Lampedusa since January. Premier Silvio Berlusconi has been under pressure from his anti-immigrant coalition partner, the Northern League, to take more action to stop the influx. The Italian branch of the children rights' group, Terre des Hommes, has expressed concern about the safety of unaccompanied migrant children in detention at Lampedusa. "We are seeing most of them are in a poor state of mind, in particular psychologically and emotionally," said Federica Giannotta, who is responsible for children's rights at Terre des Hommes. Giannotta's statement followed reports on Tuesday that several children had injured or mutilated themselves while in detention.