Several more migrants have been taken from the rescue vessel Open Arms for medical reasons to the Italian island of
Lampedusa, the Spanish charity which operates the boat said Friday.
The Ocean Viking charity ship plucked 85 African migrants from the sea off Libya Friday, the latest rescue in the Mediterranean as Hollywood star Richard Gere boarded a second vessel to highlight the plight of those stranded.
Italy's hardline Interior Minister
Matteo Salvini on Tuesday declared war on mafia networks exploiting foreign
agricultural workers after 16 died in two crashes in the country's south.
Some 255 migrants were rescued overnight in the Mediterranean off the coast of Libya, just before a front of bad weather hit the area, the Italian coastguard said on Tuesday.
Italian pathologists began post-mortem
examinations Wednesday of 26 migrant girls found dead at sea, as Nigeria
called for an international inquiry into their deaths.
Italy has warned NGOs operating migrant rescue boats in the Mediterranean they will not be allowed to continue if they do not sign up to new rules governing their operations.
The number of migrants rescued at sea this year in operations run by Italy's coastguard topped 15,000 on Friday after another 900 people were saved, including eight-month-old Syrian twins and five other babies.
The Italian coastguard on Monday said rescuers had recovered the bodies of 15 migrants in search and rescue operations which saved nearly 2,700 people making the perilous Mediterranean crossing to Europe.
Two Syrian girls, one of them an eight-month-old baby, are among up to six people who died when a boat carrying would-be migrants to Europe capsized off Libya Thursday, rescuers said.
An online project seeking to discourage migrants dreaming of a better life in Italy from making the dangerous journey to central Europe was launched by the Italian government on Thursday.
Italy has finished the gruesome task of
recovering migrant bodies from a fishing boat that sank with hundreds of people aboard more than a year ago, the navy said on Thursday.
A man was arrested on suspicion of killing Nigerian asylum seeker Emmanuel Chidi Namdi on Thursday, as condemnation and tributes poured in from Italian officials.
The number of unaccompanied minors among Italy's refugees has doubled since last year, as smugglers' exploitative "pay as you go" deals attract cashless teens.
An Eritrean man extradited to Italy on suspicion of being the head of a migrant trafficking ring has told investigators he is not the man they want, his lawyer said on Friday.
An estimated 400 foreign seasonal workers gathered in front of the town hall of San Ferdinando, Calabria, on Thursday to protest the killing of a colleague by a police officer.
A policeman in Italy has shot dead a migrant who stabbed him during a brawl in an area renowned for tensions between immigrants, locals and police, media reports said on Wednesday.
Dozens of migrants were missing after an overloaded fishing boat sank off the coast of Libya on Friday, the latest tragic accident in the Mediterranean this week, Italian rescuers said.
Four African refugees arrived in
Cyprus from Italy on Tuesday as part of an EU relocation programme for asylum seekers to help ease Europe's migration crisis, officials said.
An Italian prosecutor on Tuesday requested an 18-year prison term for the alleged captain of a migrant boat which sank off Libya in April 2015, killing as many as 800 people, Italian media reported.
