At least 200 migrants have been rescued from the central Mediterranean Sea in the past two days. The migrants were fleeing Libya when they were picked up by two humanitarian aid ships, Geo Barents and Mare Jonio.
The Italian coast guard on Tuesday ordered another administrative detention for the migrant rescue ship Ocean Viking.
The bodies of at least 16 Kurdish migrants were returned to Iraq after their attempt to cross the English Channel ended in tragedy. The incident claimed a total of 27 lives.
The Greek and Tunisian coast guards have also reported successful rescue missions. Nonetheless, dozens of people have died in shipwrecks in the Mediterranean over the past several days.
At least one man drowned after a migrant boat sank off the Greek island of Folegandros, dozens remain missing. Twelve migrants were rescued and taken to hopital, the coast guard said.
The private rescue ship Sea-Watch 4 has been granted permission to dock in Sicily having waited for a safe port assignment since Monday. It has been carrying around 460 migrants rescued from distress in the Mediterranean in the course of the past week.
The private rescue ship Geo Barents, run by MSF, announced on Wednesday that it had rescued 99 more people. At the bottom of the packed boat, they found 10 dead bodies. There are now 186 migrants on board the ship.
Libya's coast guard has intercepted 280 migrants on five boats on their journey to Europe. They are now due to be sent back to their respective countries of origins.
The private rescue ship Sea-Eye 4 has saved a total of more than 800 migrants in the Mediterranean in recent days while other NGO ships and the Italian coast guard rescued nearly 600. The Sea-Eye 4 is now heading for the Italian port of Lampedusa.
Private rescue groups including SOS Mediterranee and Sea-Eye overnight picked up hundreds of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
Hundreds of migrants rescued from the Central Mediterranean by the Geo Barents remained at sea over the weekend, waiting for permission to disembark. Two other private vessels have brought more than 500 rescued migrants to the Italian island of Sicily over the past two days.
Late on Tuesday, October 19, the private rescue yacht Nadir was able to disembark the 34 migrants it had rescued almost two days before. Another 412 migrants are still waiting on board the Sea-Watch 3 ship to be assigned a safe port at which to disembark.