Italian Premier Matteo Renzi says Italian and Maltese ships are responding to two migrant emergencies near the Libyan coast.
Renzi told a joint press conference with Malta President Joseph Muscat on Monday that ships from the two countries were responding to distress calls from an inflatable life raft near the Libyan coast with 100 to 150 aboard and to another boat with 300 people on board.
Renzi said the rescue operations, coming after the deadly shipwreck this weekend, are evidence that smugglers' activities are intensifying and that Europe needs to unite to combat the human trafficking in the Mediterranean.