Rescue authorities found the bodies of seven migrants, including five women, after their boat capsized off the Italian island of Lampedusa, coastguard officials said on Sunday.
Italian coastguard service said Thursday 264 migrants had been rescued from a boat off the coast of Calabria, where traffickers have increasingly been using smaller boats recently.
Some 5,000 migrants bound for Italy were rescued in waters off the coast of Libya between Thursday and Saturday morning by Italian and Libyan coastguards, statements from both countries said.
About 1,350 migrants were rescued on Thursday during a dozen separate operations in the Mediterranean, with the body of one migrant also recovered, the Italian coastguard said.
Over 250 African migrants were feared drowned in the Mediterranean on Thursday after a charity's rescue boat found five corpses close to two sinking rubber dinghies off Libya.
About 730 migrants were rescued off the Libyan coast on Wednesday after seven rescue operations mounted by the Italian coast guard and the SOS Mediterranee aid group.
Around one thousand people were rescued from unseaworthy vessels in the Mediterranean on Friday, while one dead body was recovered, the Italian coastguard said in a statement.
Another 900 migrants have been rescued from stricken boats off Libya, Italy's coastguard said Wednesday, three days before the end of what is already a record year for arrivals at the country's southern ports.
It has been a record year for Italy's coastguard, with nearly 180,000 people rescued in the Mediterranean, longer days than ever before and, despite their efforts, thousands of victims.
The EU border control agency Frontex on Wednesday called on states to provide officers for a European coastguard, due to be launched next year to help cope with the upsurge in migrants trying to reach Europe.
Around 6,500 migrants were rescued off the coast of Libya on Monday, the Italian coastguard said, in one of its busiest days of life-saving in recent years.
Over 1,000 migrants were pulled to safety from rickety vessels in the Mediterranean on Thursday by rescuers who also recovered 17 bodies, Italy's coastguard said.
More than 2,500 migrants seeking to reach
Europe were rescued off the coast of Sicily over the weekend in 20 separate
operations, the Italian coastguard said on Sunday.
Nearly 1,500 migrants, including many women
and children, have been rescued in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya
over the past two days, the Italian coastguard said on Monday.
More than 650 people have been plucked to safety in the Mediterranean and one body recovered, the Italian coastguard said on Tuesday, as migrants continue to attempt the perilous crossing to Europe despite the winter weather.
As the Mediterranean migrant crisis continues unabated, the Italian coastguard is engaged in a near-constant race against the clock to save people at sea. One of the most important rescue tools these days is the phone.
Rescuers have found no more survivors from the shipwreck of a boat in which 400 migrants are believed to have drowned, the Italian coastguard said on Wednesday.
UPDATED: The Italian coastguard said on Monday it recovered nine bodies after a boat with over 150 migrants aboard sank off Libya during a surge in attempted illegal crossings to Europe that saw almost 6,000 migrants rescued.
Italy's coastguard on Friday called on the government to change its status so that its 11,000 seamen can carry weapons, amid mounting concern over the possibility of attacks by people traffickers or terrorists.
Nearly 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from home, the Icelandic coastguard's Tyr lurches wildly as it
chases a suspect cargo ship off the coast of Italy in gale force winds.
