Eighty-eight people were rescued at the weekend from a small boat off Cape Verde in the Atlantic Ocean. The migrants had left Gambia more than three weeks ago. Two men died during the journey.
Lampedusa has mourned the death of three migrants, including a 14-month-old girl. Their small boat, which had departed from Tunisia, capsized off the Italian island on Friday, January 6.
The Italian government is working on introducing tougher measures to limit the capacities of private rescue organizations carrying out rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea. Italy says sanctions will be included in a new code of conduct.
Tunisian authorities have recovered the bodies of four people believed to be African migrants, including a pregnant woman, off the coast of Kerkennah Island in the Central Mediterranean.
A two-year-old girl from the Ivory Coast has died in a shipwreck some 10 miles south of Lampedusa. She had departed from Sfax, in Tunisia, with her mother and dozens of other migrants. Meanwhile, two migrant rescue vessels are expected in the port of Livorno.