Italy struggles with fresh wave of migrants

 Emotions were running high in Italy Friday as the country struggled to cope with a new influx of migrants amid “worrying” allegations of clashes between Muslim and Christian refugees on a boat.

More than 11,000 migrants have been rescued in the Mediterranean and taken to Italy in the past six days, with hundreds more expected Friday, the coastguard said.

The migrant wave has swelled in recent days on the back of the worsening security situation in Libya — the staging post for most of the crossings — as well as the milder spring weather.

Aid workers said Friday a woman was found dead and 15 other people, including a six-month baby, were found injured on an inflatable dinghy carrying 90 people that had been adrift for two days.

The woman had been taken onboard despite suffering serious burns in a gas canister blast in a Libyan camp housing migrants waiting to be smuggled into Europe, the UN’s refugee agency said.

More than 300 migrants were rescued on another stricken boat Friday, among them 45 women and 23 children, rescuers said.

Meanwhile, prosecutors in the Sicilian port of Palermo asked a court to remand in custody 15 migrants accused of throwing a dozen Christian passengers overboard after a row during a crossing from Libya.

Survivors told Italian police a group of Muslim migrants attacked a group of Christians in a dispute over religion and that those who survived had “forcefully resisting attempts to drown them”.

Investigators interrogated the 15 accused — said by police to be from Ivory Coast, Senegal and Mali — on Thursday night.

The 12 victims were from Ghana and Nigeria, according to the police.