Italy considers state of emergency as 1,000 immigrants land in Sicily

Italy was considering declaring a state of emergency on illegal immigration last night after a ship with around 1,000 refugees, said to be Kurds from Iraq, arrived in Sicily from Turkish waters.

Authorities in the port city of Catania reeled as hundreds of children in need of food, water and shelter were found on aboard the 80-metre merchant vessel.

Medical teams treated a few severely ill passengers and a helicopter airlifted a 21-year-old pregnant woman to hospital where she later gave birth to a girl. Mother and baby were reported to be well.

"There are around 1,000 people on board, among them 300 children and 200 women," said Captain Sebastiano Scandura of Italy's coastguard police. The figure was later confirmed to be 928.

"They are very tired and the hygiene-sanitation conditions are very precarious - some definitely need medical attention."

Reception centres were being improvised last night because most of the accommodation set aside for immigrants had been filled by boatloads arriving in previous weeks.

The authorities promised to let the new arrivals disembark as soon as possible and transport them to mainland Italy.

Speaking from New York, Claudio Scajola, the interior minister, said he would propose a state of emergency to give regional authorities more power to deal with mass arrivals.

The merchant ship Monica, believed to be registered in the south Pacific kingdom of Tonga, reportedly sailed from Lebanon and picked up the passengers in Turkey a week ago. The Lebanese authorities denied that the ship had originated from there.

One of the passengers told reporters at the quayside yesterday that they were Iraqi Kurds, suggesting they would claim political asylum on the grounds that they faced persecution from Baghdad.

The Italian navy intercepted the ship in the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday night and attempted to board but backed off, allegedly after the passengers threatened to throw children overboard.

An Italian frigate towed the vessel to Catania yesterday afternoon.

Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government was elected last May partly on the promise of staunching the influx of illegal immigrants, estimated at 20,000 last year, which has become an explosive political issue. The government recently presented a bill intended to crack down on the trade.