TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libya’s coastguard rescued nearly 500 migrants on Tuesday at sea west of the capital Tripoli, a spokesman said, underlining the challenge of trying to slow an exodus from Africa and the Middle East.

The migrants included people from sub-Saharan countries, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

“Coastguards rescued early morning today 140 illegal migrants west of Tripoli and another group of 164 migrants were rescued off Sabratha including seven women and six children,” a spokesman for Libya’s naval forces told Reuters.

Later another group of 150 were rescued off Tripoli.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed the Libyan desert and taken to flimsy boats on the Mediterranean in the hope of reaching Europe in recent years.

A plan was agreed in Paris on Monday by four European countries and three African states, including Libya, to support nations struggling to contain the flow of people.

Leaders agreed on the principle of setting up a mechanism to identify legitimate migrants fleeing war and persecution, and to use the United Nations to register them in Niger and Chad so as to prevent them from being exploited by people smugglers.

Libya has been in turmoil since an uprising six years ago overthrew former leader Muammar Gaddafi. </s> Italian naval ships and vessels from nongovernment groups rescued thousands of migrants off the Libyan coast on Monday, the latest surge in desperate attempts to flee to Europe driven by war, poverty, and human traffickers.

The dramatic operation took place just 21 km (13 miles) north of the town of Sabratha in Libya. Groups such as Proactiva Open Arms and Doctors Without Borders helped take on some 3,000 people who had been traveling in some 20 small wooden boats.

In images and video by The Associated Press, 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, alongside those fleeing wars from Syria to Afghanistan.

Libya’s chaos and lack of border controls have made it into a transit route. Since the 2011 ouster and killing of longtime Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, the country has sunk into lawlessness, facing a myriad of militias vying for influence and an emerging Islamic State affiliate.

In June, the European Union expanded its anti-smuggling operation in the central Mediterranean to include training Libyan coastal and naval forces, which are intercepting boats and returning migrants to Libya, where some are being held in abusive conditions.

Rights groups and experts estimate that there are about 3,500 migrants held in roughly 20 official detention facilities across Libya. Others are held in informal detention centers controlled by criminal gangs or armed groups. </s> ROME — The Italian coast guard says 6,055 migrants have been rescued in one day in the Mediterranean off Libya. Nine bodies were recovered.

The coast guard said it a total of 39 rescues Monday in the sea about 30 miles north of Tripoli. Smugglers took advantage of the first day of calm seas after days of rough waters to launch vessels crowded with migrants who pay them in hopes of reaching European shores.

Most of the vessels were rubber dinghies, but there were also two rafts.

Doctors Without Borders said the dead included a 23-year-old pregnant woman.

Italian coast guard and navy ships, as well as vessels in European Frontex sea patrols and several humanitarian organizations, participated in the rescues.

Two migrants needing medical care were flown to Sicily's Lampedusa island. </s> Over 3,000 migrants are rescued on Monday off the coast of Libya with the majority of them hailing from Eritrea and Somalia. One of the 20 boats contained over 700 refugees that were rescued 13 miles from Sabratha, Libya. They were rescued by two NGO’s and the Italian navy in the Mediterranean Sea </s> Libya’s coastguard has rescued nearly 1,000 migrants who were on boats in distress in the Mediterranean on their way to Europe, the navy said on Monday.

Three separate operations took place on Sunday with the coastguard bringing ashore in Libya a total of 948 migrants, navy spokesman Ayoub Kacem said.

The migrants were on inflatable dinghies which were facing difficulties in the Mediterranean off the coast of Garabulli east of the capital Tripoli, navy officer Rami Ghommeidh said.

A first group of 97 migrants were rescued, while a second operation brought 361 migrants — including 88 women and 44 children — ashore and late in the evening a final group of 490 migrants were rescued, said Kacem.

In all a total of 2,000 migrants trying to make the perilous journey to Europe, often on unseaworthy boats, were either intercepted or assisted by the Libyan navy since Wednesday.

Monday’s announcement by the navy came as Italy’s far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini was en route to Libya for talks on the migrant crisis.

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Salvini, who has vowed a hardline stance on migrants, posted a selfie on Twitter showing him on board a military plane heading for Libya and wrote: “Mission Libya, we’ve left!”.

He is the first member of Italy’s new populist government to visit the North African country, a former Italian colony.

On Sunday Salvini ordered foreign charities to stop rescuing migrants off Libya even as reports emerged of that a group of nearly 1,000 were on boats in distress in the Mediterranean.

“Let the Libyan authorities do their work of rescue, recovery and return (of migrants) to their country, as they have been doing for some time, without the ships of the voracious NGOs disturbing them or causing trouble,” he said.

Later on Sunday the Italian interior minister thanked Libyan authorities for rescuing migrants trapped at sea.

“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks, as a minister and as a father, to the authorities and the Libyan coastguard,” he said in a tweet.

“Today they saved and brought 820 immigrants back to Libya, making the ‘work’ of the traffickers in vain and avoiding wrongful interventions by NGO ships,” he added.

Libya is a key departure point for thousands of migrants hoping to reach Europe, although hundreds drown each year attempting the crossing. </s> Libya’s navy says it has intercepted and brought to shore vessels carrying nearly 700 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe over the past two days.

Colonel Ayoub Qassem said the coast guard of the UN-backed government in Tripoli on Tuesday intercepted two boats together carrying 290 migrants.

A third vessel with 164 on board was intercepted off the coast of Sebratha.

With Italian help, the coast guard intercepted another boat with 88 migrants and one with 134 migrants on Monday.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants have in recent years attempted to cross the Mediterranean from Libya on rickety boats in the hope of reaching Europe, and thousands have died. </s> TRIPOLI - Libyan fishermen found the bodies of 28 illegal migrants who appeared to have died of thirst and hunger after their boat broke down off the coast of Sabratha city, a ministry of interior official said on Tuesday.

Since Libya fell into chaos after Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011, the North African country is the main departure point for migrants hoping to reach Europe by sea. More than 150,000 have made the crossing to Italy annually over the past three years. Interior Ministry security unit commander Ahmaida Khalifa Amsalam told Reuters the 28 migrants, including four women, had been found after sunset by the fishermen who towed the vessel to shore.

Meanwhile, nearly 9,000 mainly African migrants were rescued in the Mediterranean this past long weekend after being put by smugglers in Libya onto unseaworthy boats heading toward Italy, UN aid agencies said on Tuesday.

The migrants, many from Nigeria and Senegal with some from Bangladesh, are among an estimated 20,000 held by criminal gangs in irregular detention centres in Libya, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.

On release, they pay to board the overcrowded boats, often just inflated rubber vessels that could not cross the Mediterranean, in the hope of starting a new life in Europe.

“It is obvious that better spring weather has encouraged smugglers to take people from their detention centres,” IOM spokesman Leonard Doyle told a news briefing in Geneva.

“The smugglers have clearly taken them to sea and pushed them out in the hope and belief that they would be rescued.”

More than 35 vessels, including private charity boats, the European Union border agency Frontex, the Italian and Libyan coast guards and 12 merchant ships were involved in rescuing dozens of vessels, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said.

“This was an overwhelming search and rescue activity by all sides involved,” UNHCR spokesman Babar Baloch said.

“We repeat our calls on Europe, on the governments, to be out there saving lives. NGOs have been a great help in terms of filling up that vacuum,” he added.

At least 900 migrants have died or have gone missing while attempting to reach Europe by sea so far this year, including 97 missing in the latest incidents between Thursday and Sunday, during which time 18 bodies were also found, Doyle said.

Some 36,000 migrants have been rescued, against 24,000 at this time last year, he said.

IOM reported earlier this month that growing numbers of African migrants passing through Libya are traded in what they call “slave markets” before being held for ransom, forced labour or sexual exploitation.

“So there’s a full-on economy of trafficking or trading in migrants who think they are going to a better life in Europe and end up effectively in a gulag of exploitation,” Doyle said. </s> 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> Rome: At least 34 migrants, most of them toddlers, drowned on Wednesday, as coastguard boats and other vessels tried to save hundreds of others packed into boats off the coast of Libya, rescuers said.

One of a group of boats listed suddenly, sending about 200 people tumbling into the Mediterranean, Italian Coast Guard commander Cosimo Nicastro told Reuters.

"At least 20 dead bodies were spotted in the water," he said. Rescue group MOAS said it had already recovered 34 bodies. "Most are toddlers," the group`s co-founder Chris Catrambone said on Twitter.

The coast guard called in more ships to help with the rescue, saying about 1,700 people were packed into about 15 vessels.

More than 1,300 people have died this year on the world`s most dangerous crossing for migrants fleeing poverty and war across Africa and the Middle East.

In the past week, more than 7,000 migrants have been plucked from unsafe boats in international waters off the western coast of Libya, where people smugglers operate with impunity.

Despite efforts by Italy and the European Union to bolster the Tripoli-based coast guard and funnel training and equipment to fight trafficking to the U.N.-backed government, record numbers of migrants are coming this year.

More than 50,000 migrants have been rescued at sea and brought to Italy so far, a 46 percent increase on the same period of last year, the Interior Ministry said this week.

Most rescues take place just outside the 12-mile mark that separates Libyan territory from international waters.

It is a busy stretch of sea where humanitarian vessels, the Libyan Coast Guard and even scavengers hoping to recover abandoned migrant boats and their engines all operate.

The Libyan Coast Guard on Tuesday fired shots as non-governmental vessels conducted rescues nearby, humanitarian group Jugend Rettet, which operates the Iuventa rescue ship, said on its Facebook page.

The shooting prompted about 100 migrants to jump into the water and swim toward humanitarian vessels. It was unclear if anyone had been killed or wounded. The Libyans then towed two migrant boats back to shore while humanitarian groups brought more than 1,000 on board.
The Libyan Navy rescues nearly 500 migrants in three operations in the seas west of the capital Tripoli.