The Italian Coast Guard rescued 3,000 migrants after receiving distress calls from more than 20 crowded vessels stuck in the Mediterranean on Saturday, according to Yahoo! News. At least two Italian boats are involved in the rescue attempt.
No casualties have been reported in the large-scale rescue operation so far, which is still underway as of Saturday evening.
Europe has recently been flooded with large numbers of refugees from the Middle East arriving by land and by water. More than 2,300 have already died this year attempting to get to Europe by boat, RTE News reported. Earlier on Saturday, hundreds of refugees broke through the closed Macedonian border in an attempt to get deeper into Europe after fleeing Syria.
The migrant boats, mostly rubber floating devices, are stranded off the coast of Libya. Italy rescued more than 1,200 people from the water so far. Almost 11,000 migrants came into the European Union in July alone, according to NPR.
The refugees are fleeing the turbulent Middle East, which continues to be rife with battle. A suicide bomb exploded in Afghanistan on Saturday as well, killing at least a dozen people in the middle of Kabul. Several terrorist groups, including the Taliban and ISIS, have staged recent attacks in the Middle East.
