Italian navy saves over 1,100 migrants

The Italian navy has rescued more than 1,100 migrants from nine large rafts in the waters south of Sicily, Italian media has reported.

Patrol helicopters identified the rafts on Wednesday and four navy vessels participated in the rescue which ended early today, Thursday, a statement from the Italian navy said.

The nationalities of the migrants has not yet been established.

In October, 366 Eritreans drowned in a shipwreck near the shore of the Italian island of Lampedusa, which is located about halfway between Sicily and Tunisia. More than 200, mostly Syrians, died in another shipwreck a week later.

Over the past two decades, Italy, Greece and Malta have borne the brunt of migrant flows and have urged the EU to make a more robust and coordinated response.