Hundreds of migrants have bee rescued by Coastguards off the coast of Libya crossing their way into Italy.
The coastguards also recovered 10 bodies as smugglers continue to take advantage of calm waters to continue transporting African migrants to Europe.
The Italian Coast Guard said the 10 bodies were found in three separate rescue operations off Libya’s coast while 5,800 were rescued alive.
Sunday’s rescue operation which is said to be one of the biggest rescue operations off Libya’s coast so far, came just a day after another 3,690 migrants were saved from boats headed for Italy.
Most of those rescued were found in wooden and rubber boats in separate rescue operations conducted by Italian and French guards.
Most of those migrants were still being taken to southern Italian ports even as the fresh rescues were taking place.
With Italy bearing the brunt of the arrivals for years now, the Italian far right, spearheaded by the anti-immigrant Northern League party, has also been pushing for a radical change in how the migrant sea arrivals are handled.
One such suggestion has been to keep rescued migrants aboard large ferries offshore until their asylum applications, a process that can take months or more, are examined. Then those only found eligible for asylum in Europe would come ashore.
At least 1,750 people have died this year trying to cross the Mediterranean, a 20-fold increase on the same period in 2014 when 96 people died.
The final number of people rescued over the weekend is expected to rise.
Many more migrants are expected to make the crossing in the coming weeks as smugglers take advantage of calmer weather.
