Italy’s coastguard was on Saturday coordinating the rescue of up to 3,000 migrants from waters off Libya after receiving distress calls from 18 crowded vessels.
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Seven boats, including Norway’s military ship Siem Pilot, are involved in the rescue operation.
A migrant is rescued by an Italian Navy helicopter in the area where his boat sank in the Mediterranean Sea on August 11.
Some 170,000 migrants from Africa, the Middle East and South Asia landed at Italy’s southern ports in 2014 after being rescued in the Mediterranean, while the total for 2015 has already topped 104,000.
No fewer than 2,300 people have died this year in attempts to reach Europe by boat, according to the worldwide Organisation for Migration.
Each of them paid 2000 euros ($2,200) to the traffickers for the passage from Egypt to Italy, they said in statements to the police.
“The European Union’s border control agency Frontex said that it had detected some 107,500 people arriving outside regular channels in July, a sharp increase on the previous record set in June of over 70,000, and more than three times as many as it registered in the same month past year “.
The refugees and migrants who have been there since last Thursday have spent the nights sleeping on the ground despite heavy rain and chilly overnight temperatures.
It was unclear how many people remained in danger.
Humanitarian organisations say the surge in the numbers of people trying to reach EU countries is the result of conflicts or repression in east Africa and the Middle East. Many passengers, including a number of women and children, had been locked below the decks.
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Operations to rescue people stranded on other drifting vessels is continuing.
