(MENAFN- Arab News) ROME: Ten migrants who had risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe were found dead on Sunday the day after nearly 3700 others were rescued at sea.
The number saved on Saturday was one of the highest ever recorded in a single day raising fears that the tide of desperate people trying to reach Europe from Africa and the Middle East has not been slowed by recent disasters.
'Around 10 people were found dead' the Italian coast guard said Sunday while several rescue teams worked off the shores of war-torn Libya where most of the rickety overcrowded boats set sail from.
Rescuers said they found some of the dead on board several distressed migrant boats. It was unclear how they had died.
Another three men drowned after they jumped into the sea as they rushed to reach a coast guard vessel.
Italian coast guards said 3690 migrants were rescued on Saturday.
A record 3791 migrants were rescued on April 12 followed and further 2850 the following day.
The navy said its patrol ship Bettica picked up more than 400 migrants traveling on board two vessels on Sunday among them some 60 women and around 15 children.
Video released by the coast guard showed migrants crammed onto a small boat that was intercepted on Saturday. The migrants are later seen clambering aboard a rescue vessel.
Coast Guards are seen wearing protective white suits and face masks.
Saturday's operations in the Mediterranean involved four Italian coast guard vessels two Italian navy ships and two customs boats as well as four cargo ships and tugs.
The Italian frigate Bersagliere took 778 migrants on board while the patrol boat Vega plucked another 675 from the water.
French patrol boat Commandant Birot which was sent last week to boost the EU's Operation Triton patrols dealing with the influx of migrant boats also picked up 219 people off the coast of Libya Saturday.
Two suspected people traffickers were to be handed over to police after the patrol boat docked in the port of Crotone in Calabria in southern Italy. EU leaders tripled the budget for patrols off chaos-ridden Libya from where most of the migrants set out for Europe in flimsy vessels after more than 1200 drowned in a series of tragedies last month.
On April 19 some 750 migrants were killed when their trawler sank between Libya and southern Italy sparking global outrage and demands for action on the string of deadly migrant shipwrecks.
EU leaders are now seeking UN Security Council approval for military action against smugglers in chaos-ridden Libya.