Nearly 3,700 people have been rescued as people smugglers took advantage of calm seas to send migrants across the Mediterranean to Europe.
Migrants were rescued from seven wooden boats and nine rubber dinghies off the coast of Libya in 16 separate operations on Saturday and early Sunday as distress signals came in throughout the day.
Some of the overcrowded boats would usually have a capacity of less than 20 passengers, a coastguard source told the Guardian.
Italian naval frigate the Bersagliere saved 778 people from five boats south of Lampedusa, Italy’s southernmost island. The Vega rescued a further 672 people in two separate incidents on Saturday, the Italian navy said.
While the large-scale operation was coordinated by the Italian authorities, the rescues were an international effort. French vessel Commandant Birot, patrolling the Mediterranean as part of the EU’s Triton operation, saved 217 migrants from three boats and arrested two suspected people smugglers.
There were a total of 13 vessels involved in the operation, including two cargo ships and two supply boats, the Italian coastguard said.
While 288 of the rescued migrants arrived in Lampedusa overnight, the remainder will arrive in Italy laster on Sunday and on Monday. Those saved by the Bersagliere will disembark on Monday in Reggio Calabria, south Italy.
Flavio Di Giacomo, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration, said the crossing was becoming increasingly risky.
“Unfortunately the boats upon which migrants are forced to travel are always more rundown and dangerous, and therefore the risk of shipwrecks is evermore present,” he told the Guardian.
Di Giacomo said there was an urgent need to reinforce search and rescue missions in the Mediterranean, to avoid more deaths at sea. More than 1,200 people are thought to have drowned last month en route to Europe.
The mild spring weather and the calm summer seas are expected to push total arrivals in Italy for 2015 to 200,000, up by 30,000 on last year, according to an interior ministry projection.
Shocked by what was described as the most deadly Mediterranean shipwreck in memory last month, EU leaders agreed to triple funding for its Triton sea patrol mission after a migrant boat capsized and up to 900 drowned.
