Navy helicopters spot four boats carrying 823 people, while in second operation 233 migrants are saved
The Italian navy rescued more than 1,000 migrants from boats trying to reach Europe within a 24-hour period, authorities said, as an immigration crisis that has led to the deaths of hundreds of people in the past year showed no signs of easing.
Navy helicopters spotted four overcrowded boats struggling to stay afloat south of Sicily on Thursday and ships were sent to save them, the navy said in a statement.
The 823 men, women and children aboard the four vessels were from countries including Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq and Tunisia.
In a separate operation, the navy rescued 233 migrants from Eritrea, Nigeria, Somalia, Zambia, Mali and Pakistan and took them to a port near Syracuse on Sicily's eastern coast.
After an October shipwreck in which 366 Eritrean migrants drowned off the Italian island of Lampedusa, Italy launched an operation combining ships, helicopters and drones to monitor the Mediterranean Sea.
Italy is a gateway into Europe for many migrants – arrivals by sea to the country from northern Africa more than tripled in 2013, fuelled by refugees from Syria's civil war and conflict in the Horn of Africa.
Over the past two decades, Italy, Greece and Malta have borne the brunt of the migrant flows and have urged a co-ordinated European Union response.
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