The Italian coastguard on Saturday rescued more than 4,500 migrants and recovered dead body of a female refugee in multiple rescue operations off the Libyan coast.
The stranded migrants were rescued following twenty-one coordinated rescue missions, the coastguard said, according to Reuters. It also said one woman refugee was found dead in one of migrant boat.
Italian, German, British, Croatian natives took part in operations including ships belonging to Doctors Without Borders and Migrant Offshore Aid Station, according to DPA.
"We started before first light this morning with our first rescue. We rescued two wooden fishing boats and two rubber dinghies," Simon Burroughs of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), according to AFP. "The rescued included Eritreans, Nigerians, Somalis, Libyans, Syrians and west Africans," he said.
Greek Navy on Sunday said it was searching for 26 migrants missing off the coast of the eastern Aegean island after their vessel sank, reported Associated Press.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said more than 2,600 migrants had died this year attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from Libya to Italy, according to DPA.
Europe is facing its biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War. Several countries in European Union are struggling to stem massive influx of refugees from war-torn Asian countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.
