Data from the International Organization for Migration released on Friday said around 105,000 migrants had reached Italy by boat in 2016, many of them setting sail from Libya.
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The Italian coast guard said the rescued migrants are being taken to ports in Calabria and Sicily.
Twin babies born on the treacherous refugee route through Libya are among thousands of asylum seekers rescued in just one day on the Mediterranean Sea. Most of the rescued migrants were believed to be Africans.
“The command center coordinated 40 rescue operations” that included vessels from Italy, humanitarian organizations as well as the European Union’s border agency Frontex, saving 6,500 migrants, the coastguard wrote on Twitter.
The total number of arrivals in Italy this year, prior to Monday’s rescues, was at about 105,000, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
It disclosed that numerous boats were flimsy rubber dinghies that become dangerously unstable in high seas.
This month, an MSF ship taking part in migrant rescue operations came under attack from armed men who shot at the vessel before briefly climbing aboard, the medical charity said.
The Italian coastguard predicted that weather conditions would encourage the departure of further migrant boats yesterday.
A man carries his five days old son after been rescued from a crowded wooden vessel as they were fleeing Libya, during a rescue operation in the Mediterranean sea, about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016.
Last year, more than one million migrants made the journey to Europe, with the majority fleeing war in Syria and the Middle East.
Nobody was hurt in the incident, which took place on August 17, the group said.
The migrants had set off in overcrowded and unseaworthy vessels with enough fuel to reach waiting rescuers, AP reported.
“This unbelievable number speaks to the desperation people are facing in their countries that pushes them to risk their lives to seek safety and protection in Europe….the EU’s response to the crisis at and within its borders has failed to address the urgent humanitarian and protection needs of refugees and migrants”.
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Global rescuers including Italy’s Navy saved over 7,000 migrants and asylum seekers in 53 different operations in the southern Mediterranean yesterday, defence ministry sources said Tuesday.
