Italy abandons refugees without food

The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday accused Italy of abandoning hundreds of refugees in car parks on the outskirts of Rome and Milan without shoes, food, drink or money.

The criticism came as Italy struggles to deal with waves of immigrants washing up on its southern coasts in overcrowded boats, with more than 50,000 people landing so far this year - a similar number to those who arrived in all of 2013.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees slammed as "unacceptable" the treatment of the refugees from Syria, Somalia and Sub-Saharan Africa who landed in Sicily on Monday and were shipped to Rome and Milan in coaches overnight.

"There were two groups of between 160 to 170 people each. One of the groups was abandoned near Rome, the other near Milan," Carlotta Sami, the UNHCR's spokeswoman in Italy, told AFP.

Those left near Rome were eventually taken in by a centre for asylum seekers in the capital on Tuesday, but those in Milan were still in the parking lot in the middle of the afternoon, she said.

The refugees "were found without shoes, disorientated, and without having been given anything to eat or drink", the agency said.

They were part of a contingent of 1,300 immigrants - including hundreds of women and dozens of babies - who had been picked up and taken to the southern Italian city of Taranto on Monday.

Hundreds of others rescued at the same time were taken to Sicily, where officials said they were no longer able to cope with the influx of people.

In the most recent tragedy to hit boat refugees, three migrants drowned and six more were missing in the Mediterranean off Italy, the coastguard said Tuesday, in the latest deadly incidents to hit refugees making the treacherous sea crossing from north Africa to Europe.

The migrants were in an inflatable dinghy which approached a Maltese oil tanker coming to their aid, the emergency services said.

In a separate incident, four migrants from the Central African Republic fell from a rope ladder connecting a merchant ship with their stricken vessel were swept away, according to the ship's captain.

Two suspected smugglers were arrested after arriving with rescued refugees at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The incidents follow the arrival of 2,000 migrants in Italy on Monday after an international operation to rescue refugees packed into 25 boats travelling from Libya.

Favourable weather conditions mean that thousands of migrants are expected to attempt the perilous crossing from north Africa to the Italian coast in the coming days.

Gil Arias Fernandez, the head of Frontex, the European Union border coordination agency, said recently that "hundreds of thousands" of migrants were currently in Libya and hoping to leave as soon as possible because of growing lawlessness.

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano estimated that number at between 400,000 and 600,000 people and has asked Frontex for more support and that it move its base to Italy.