OFF THE COAST OF LIBYA (AP) — Spanish and Italian naval ships, along with vessels from non-government groups, are rescuing thousands of migrants off the Libyan coast.

Monday's dramatic operation is taking place just 21 kilometers (13 miles) north of the town of Sabratha in Libya.

Groups such as Proactiva Open Arms and Doctors Without Borders are helping take on some 3,000 people who had been travelling in some 20 small wooden boats.

Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the water from a crowded wooden boat as they are helped by members of an NGO during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. Thousands of migrants and refugees were rescued Monday morning from more than 20 boats by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO before transferring them to the Italian cost guards and others NGO vessels operating at the zone.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Migrants from Eritrea and Somalia cheered as the rescue boats arrived, with some jumping into the water and swimming toward them while others carefully carried babies onto the rescue ships.

Tens of thousands of Africans take the dangerous Mediterranean Sea route as a gateway to a better life in Europe. Libya's chaos and lack of border controls have made it into a transit route.

Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the water from a crowded wooden boat as they are helped by members of an NGO during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. Thousands of migrants and refugees were rescued Monday morning from more than 20 boats by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO before transferring them to the Italian cost guards and others NGO vessels operating at the zone. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jump into the water from a crowded wooden boat as they are helped by members of an NGO during a rescue operation on the Mediterranean sea, about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. Thousands of migrants and refugees were rescued Monday morning from more than 20 boats by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO before transferring them to the Italian cost guards and others NGO vessels operating at the zone. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Migrants, most of them from Eritrea, jumps into the water from a crowded wooden boat as they are helped by members of an NGO during a rescue operation at the Mediterranean sea, about 13 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, Monday, Aug. 29, 2016. Thousands of migrants and refugees were rescued Monday morning from more than 20 boats by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO before transferring them to the Italian cost guards and others NGO vessels operating in the zone.(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti) </s> A Syrian man reacts after being rescued by members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO on September 21, 2016, in the Meditterranean sea off the coast of Libya. By Ricardo Garcia Vilanova (AFP/File)

Rome (AFP) - More than 5,600 migrants were rescued from distress boats off Libya Monday in one of the largest tallies for a single day since the current migration crisis erupted, Italy's coast guard said.

The rescues came on the third anniversary of a migrant ship fire and sinking near the island of Lampedusa which left 366 people dead and alerted the world to the unfolding drama in the Mediterranean. </s> The Spanish group whose migrant rescue boat has been impounded by the Italian authorities hit out Thursday at what it called a deliberate campaign to ensure there were no independent witnesses to how refugees are treated while trying to flee from Libya to Italy.

"Proactiva Open Arms is the new target of a clear institutional, political and media campaign that wants to keep away witnesses who could denounce human rights violations in the Mediterranean," founder Oscar Camps told a news conference.

The Proactiva Open Arms group, which has saved more than 5,000 migrants since the start of 2017, had its boat impounded at the port of Pozzallo in Sicily, where it arrived on Saturday with more than 200 people rescued off the coast of Libya.

The non governmental group had refused to hand the migrants over to the Libyan coastguard, despite warnings from Rome and what the NGO claimed were death threats from the Libyans.

The prosecutor's office in Catania in eastern Sicily has opened an investigation into the NGO and three of its leaders for criminal conspiracy to promote illegal immigration.

Nevertheless, Camps argued that returning the migrants to Libya, where the situation is chaotic and human rights violations are common, "would mean sending them back to the hell they have fled."

The NGO's legal adviser, Jaime Rodrigo, an expert in marine law, said the legal justification for impounding the boat was "non-existant".

"It is possible that the boat will be held for a very long time, because the seizure can last as long as the procedure, and we know how long the procedures are," he said.

The boat is currently the NGO's only craft in operation and its seizure means Proactiva Open Arms, which is facing financial difficulties, cannot carry out any more rescue operations.

"We are flies and they're using cannons to fire at us," Camps said, calling for private donations and support from institutions.

Italy is the main entry point for migrants arriving in Europe across the Mediterranean.

According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), as of March 25, more than 6,100 migrants had reached Italian shores since the beginning of the year and 359 have died.

In 2017, the number of arrivals in Italy was close to 22,000, with 727 deaths. </s> The founder of a Spanish aid group that rescues migrants in the Mediterranean says Italian authorities have released his organization's ship after impounding it for taking 218 migrants to Italy.

Proactiva Open Arms founder Oscar Camps says in a tweet Monday that the ship is free to leave the Sicilian port of Pozzallo. But he says Italy is still investigating whether the group should face charges of criminal association and aiding illegal immigration.

The investigation stems from a tense high-seas standoff last month between the Open Arms crew and the Libyan coast guard. The group refused to relinquish the migrants they had picked up in international waters and took them to Italy, where authorities are trying to stem migration. </s> Migrant rescue ship Proactiva Open Arms was seized and is now being held in the port of Pozzallo in southern Sicily, because its crew refused to hand over 218 refugees to the Libyan coastguard. Those helping migrants are often faced with criminal charges for facilitating illegal immigration. Is solidarity really a crime in Europe? </s> A judge ordered Italian authorities on Monday to release a migrant rescue ship belonging to the Spanish NGO Proactiva Open Arms, which was seized in Sicily last month.

Prosecutors sought to extend a confiscation order on the Open Arms ship for a second time, but were denied by an investigating judge in Ragusa.

The vessel had been confined to dock since March 18th, after prosecutors accused the charity of aiding illegal immigration in connection with a rescue operation that it carried out in international waters off Libya.

The charges have not been dropped, according to Proactiva's founder, Oscar Camps, who said that the Italian investigation continued. He welcomed the ship's release as "only a first step".

READ ALSO: Italy seizes NGO boat that refused to take migrants to Libya

Having gone to the aid of two vessels in difficulty and taken 218 people on board the Open Arms, Proactiva refused the Libyan coast guard's orders to hand over the migrants. According to the aid group, Libyan guards threatened to kill their crew if they did not surrender those rescued, who included women and children.

Instead the Spanish ship sailed for Sicily, in what Italian prosecutors allege was a deliberate plan to bring the migrants to Italy.

According to the Italian coast guard, international norms usually require ships to wait for their country of origin to arrange where migrants rescued at sea should be taken. The Open Arms sailed for Italy while still awaiting directions from the Spanish government and despite the fact that it was closer to Malta at the time, the coast guard said.

The group defended itself by saying that the Italian authorities had asked them to intervene in the first place and that forcibly returning migrants to Libya would have placed their lives in danger.

The group's supporters organized protests in Madrid and Barcelona and more than 300,000 people signed petitions calling for the ship's release, under the slogan: "Saving lives is not a crime."

READ ALSO: Spanish migrant rescuers hit out at Italian boat seizure



 "If saving lives is a crime, I'm a criminal": a protester in Madrid. Photo: Gabriel Bouys/AFP

Italy seized another rescue ship, the Iuventa, in August on similar allegations that the German NGO that operates it had facilitated illegal immigration.

The ship remains impounded in Lampedusa, despite the group's efforts to get it back. A new hearing is scheduled for April 23rd.

More than 600,000 migrants are believed to have reached Italy by boat in the past four years, though arrivals fell by 34 percent in 2017, according to the EU border agency.

The drop is largely attributed to an accord between Italy and Libya, which has seen the Libyan coast guard assume responsibility for a large part of rescue operations.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, migrants face appalling conditions in Libya. A 22-year-old Eritrean, rescued at sea by the Open Arms ship last month after spending 18 months in detention in Libya, died from severe malnutrition just hours after landing in Sicily.

Last year around a dozen NGO ships patrolled the coast off Libya. Now there are only two such ships, with others suspending their operations following the drop in departures, as well as threats from Libya and the seizure of boats.
• Italy's migrants don't expect life to change after the election
• Italy closes Lampedusa migrant centre for renovation after conditions criticized </s> More than 700 migrants fleeing war-torn Libya have been rescued in the Mediterranean sea today.

Refugees fleeing the troubled country on small inflatable dinghies were rescued by emergency teams as they sailed toward the Italian coast, about 17 miles north of Sabratha, Libya, earlier this morning.

Members of Proactiva Open Arms NGO, a group set up to help rescue migrants at sea, helped pull them from their inflatable boats before handing them over to the Italian coastguards operating in the area.

Thousands of migrants try each year to flee Libya and make it to Italy but many drown during the crossing.

They cram into boats that are small and unsafe for the 190-mile perilous journey from Libya's shores.

A total of 4,027 migrants and refugees have perished since January trying to flee wars and poverty looking for a better life mainly in Europe, the International Organisation for Migration said last week.

Of that total, some 3,120 died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, including 120 who drowned off Libya's coastal town of Sabratha at the end of July, it said. </s> Image copyright AFP Image caption The Proactiva Open Arms NGO helped in the rescue

The Italian coastguard has co-ordinated the rescue of more than 5,600 migrants, in one of the biggest operations in a single day.

The migrants had set off from the Libyan coast in nearly 40 boats.

One migrant is reported to have died and several others were airlifted for medical treatment.

According to the International Organization for Migration, some 132,000 migrants have arrived in Italy this year.

Nearly 200 minors were saved from one of the boats, which was crammed with some 720 people. Most of the children were unaccompanied.

The rescue comes exactly three years after 366 migrants died when an overcrowded boat sank off the Italian coast.

The scale of that disaster brought attention to the plight of migrants making dangerous journeys at the mercy of smugglers. </s> MADRID — An Italian judge has ordered Italy to release a Spanish aid group’s rescue ship that was impounded for taking 218 migrants to Italy, finding that the ship was operating in an emergency when it launched the rescue, the group said Monday.

Proactiva Open Arms said the ship was free to leave the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, but that prosecutors are still investigating whether its crew should face charges of criminal association and aiding illegal immigration.

Ragusa investigating magistrate Giovanni Giampiccolo recognized that the ship was acting under “a state of necessity” when it rescued the migrants off Libya’s coast and refused Libyan coast guard commands to turn them over, Proactiva lawyer Rosa Lo Faro said.

The magistrate ruled that international standards call for those rescued at sea to be brought somewhere “safe” — and that Libya was not safe, the ANSA news agency reported.

The investigation stems from a tense high-seas standoff last month between the Open Arms crew and the Libyan coast guard. The group refused to hand over the migrants they had picked up in international waters and took them to Italy, where the ship was immediately impounded.

“At all times, we acted according to existing international norms and laws created to protect human lives at sea and the rights of those rescued,” Open Arms said.

Amid a surge in anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe, Italy has been working to stem the tide of migrants leaving lawless Libya and arriving in Italy. It has helped the Libyan coast guard beef up its patrols, reduced the number of aid groups performing sea rescues and — in a move criticized by some aid groups — negotiated deals with Libyan militias that had long profited from trafficking humans.

The strategy has resulted in a 75 per cent drop in the number of migrants arriving in Italy in the first three months of 2018, to some 6,100, according to Interior Ministry figures.
The Spanish-based Proactiva Open Arms NGO rescues more than 700 migrants in the Mediterranean Sea about 17 miles north of Sabratha, Libya. The rescued, who are from Nigeria, are transferred to the Italian Coast Guard.