Rome: The number of migrants landed in Italy this year after being rescued at sea is set to top 50,000 by Monday after another frantic weekend for the multinational flotilla of boats trying to prevent more drownings in the Mediterranean.
British Royal Navy ship HMS Bulwark was Sunday engaged in an operation to save at least 500 people from four boats in waters between Italy and Libya.
"From first light this morning, a Merlin helicopter from 814 Squadron onboard HMS Bulwark has been conducting surveillance operations and has identified four migrant vessels in distress, containing a total of at least 500 people," said a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence in London.
"HMS Bulwark has now commenced rescue operations to recover those in the vessels."
The Bulwark`s operation followed the rescue on Saturday of just under 3,500 migrants from 15 packed boats in a stretch of water 45 miles off the coast of Libya.
Italy`s coastguard said boats from the Italian, German and Irish navies took part in the rescue operation, which was coordinated in its initial stages by MOAS, a privately-funded rescue operation operating out of Malta in partnership with the Doctors without Borders (MSF) charity.
There were no reports of casualties but one Italian navy boat which was ferrying 475 migrants to Sicily reported that it had seven pregnant women on board who will be transferred to hospital on landing.
With all the rescued people to be deposited at ports in Sicily and elsewhere in southern Italy, the latest operations will lift to just over 50,000 the number of arrivals since the turn of the year.
That represents an increase of more than 10 percent on the same period last year, which, after a summer surge, ended with an unprecedented total of 170,000 migrants arriving on Italian soil.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), nearly 1,800 migrants have drowned attempting to make the crossing since the start of this year, including some 800 in an April sinking that was the biggest maritime disaster in the Mediterranean since World War II.
That tragedy prompted European governments to significantly increase search and rescue operations between Italy and North Africa. But they have been unable to agree on a longer-term strategy to ease the migration crisis amid divisions over how to spread asylum seekers fairly across member states and how to combat traffickers.
Aid organisations say the rising numbers of migrants trying to reach Europe reflects the impact of conflicts in places like Somalia and Syria which have left the world with more displaced people than at any time since the end of WWII.
