by Rebecca Hershher

The twin babies were born just five weeks ago, a month premature and ill-equipped for a dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. But their mother, 26-year-old Tesfamamrim Merhawit, decided the sea ahead was safer than the land they left behind. Traveling alone with her infants, she told the Associated Press she boarded a boat in Libya, bound for Europe. But the boat didn't have enough fuel to get to Europe. About 15 miles off the coast, she and her children were rescued by Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF. They are being treated by the medical aid group at a hospital in Sicily.

They are among the more than 10,000 people rescued from the western Mediterranean in just 36 hours, beginning with close to 7,000 people Monday. On Tuesday, an additional 3,000 people were rescued by the Italian navy and vessels operated by aid groups including MSF. The International Organization for Migration, or IOM, tells NPR it might be the largest concentration of people to arrive in Italy since the beginning of the European migrant crisis. However, the total number of people arriving in Italy is nearly the same as this time last year — at about 115,000, compared to about 116,000 in the first eight months of 2015.

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Source: http://netnebraska.org/