Ten new migrant deaths in Med after 3,700 rescued

Rome (AFP) - Ten migrants who had risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe were found dead on Sunday, the day after nearly 3,700 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 coastguard 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 coastguard vessel.

Italian coastguards said 3,690 migrants were rescued on Saturday.

A record 3,791 migrants were rescued on April 12 followed and further 2,850 the following day.

The navy said its patrol ship Bettica picked up more than 400 migrants travelling on board two vessels on Sunday, among them some 60 women and around 15 children.

Video released by the coastguard showed migrants crammed onto a small boat that was intercepted on Saturday. The migrants are later seen clambering aboard a rescue vessel.

- Fleeing war, poverty -

Coastguards are seen wearing protective white suits and face masks.

Saturday's operations in the Mediterranean involved four Italian coastguard 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 1,200 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.

But rights groups have blasted the EU for focusing on patrols rather than humanitarian efforts.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has also urged Europe to refrain from resorting to force.

"What is crucial is to have a global approach that takes into account the roots of the problem, the security and human rights of migrants and refugees, such as having immigration channels that are legal and regular," he said last week.

Most of the migrants rescued Saturday were being taken to Sicily or southern Italy, while some had already landed on the Italian island of Lampedusa.

Several hundred migrants, mostly Africans but also including many fleeing the civil war in Syria, set out from Libya every day, hoping to make it to Europe.

The number of migrants entering the EU illegally in 2014 almost tripled to 276,000, according to Frontex, nearly 220,000 of them arriving via the Mediterranean.

Some 1,750 migrants have died crossing the Mediterranean to Europe this year, 30 times more than during the same period in 2014, according to the International Organization for Migration.