Rescuers saved 484 migrants from boats in the Mediterranean on Saturday and found the bodies of seven men who had died in the attempt to get to Europe, Italy's coast guard said.
More than 45,000 people have reached Italy by boat from North Africa this year, a more than 40 percent increase on the same period of 2016, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) says. More than 1,200 have died on the way.
With rising arrivals, calls are growing for intervention in the African countries where most of the migrants originate and which they cross in their quest to reach Europe.