Italian coastguard announced on Tuesday the rescue of 271 African migrants including women and children in Sicily Island, south of the country.

It pointed out that the rescue operation was carried out by an Irish ship which received a distress call from a boat off the Libyan coasts.

Media reports quoted the Italian coastguard days ago as saying twenty rescue operations picked up over 4,500 people off the Libyan coast in the Mediterranean.

Source: MENA